This politely unassuming little film builds into a wrenching examination of grief, guilt and eventual closure. But as a blistered and weathered Harold limps into the film’s heart-sore third act, director Hettie Macdonald, whose TV work includes Normal People, shifts up an emotional gear or two. Initially, this autumn-years road movie, which was adapted by Rachel Joyce from her own novel, chugs along amiably, a cosily familiar tale of British eccentricity.
His wife, Maureen (Penelope Wilton), hurt and confused by her husband’s abandonment, vacuums despondently.
It’s an act of faith: he believes that by plodding through the B-roads of rural Britain he can save her life. Then a chance encounter in a petrol station gives Harold a new purpose: he decides to walk from Devon to Berwick-upon-Tweed, where Queenie is receiving palliative care in a hospice. It’s just a few stunted lines on headed notepaper, a reply to his old friend and former work colleague Queenie (Linda Bassett), who, he learned recently, has terminal cancer. But for some reason he can’t bring himself to post the letter. Written when King was only a freshman at the University of Maine and published later under the pseudonym Richard Bachman, The Long Walk showcases his budding potential for the sadistic that would mark his future work. M ild-mannered pensioner Harold Fry (Jim Broadbent) takes a stroll to the postbox one bright Devon morning.
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