It’s a deceptively easy premise for a two hour characteristic movie. A married couple who had deliberate their retirement in a B&B are, as a result of dire monetary circumstances and bum luck, compelled out of their dwelling at a degree that’s, on the floor at the least, utterly devastating. With their youngsters now off at college, they make the choice to pack up what they will of their backpacks and take off on the Salt Path, a 630 miles stretch from Dorset to Somerset on the Southwestern English Coast. To make issues worse the husband has simply been recognized with a terminal Neurodegenerative Illness, however they’re sure and decided to finish this journey, maybe the final of their lives as a result of they don’t have any different selection.
Oh, and it’s a 100% true story.
Exquisitely directed by 4 time Tony Award winner Marianne Elliott (Struggle Horse, Angels In America, Firm, Loss of life Of A Salesman) with a screenplay primarily based on Raynor Winn’s 2018 memoir by Rebecca Lenkiewicz (She Mentioned) , The Salt Path is an inspiring story of affection and resilience in a scenario which may in any other case break most individuals, particularly a pair getting into their later years with little hope in opposition to an unforgiving system. That is actually not the primary movie primarily based on somebody setting out on an bold stroll for varied private causes. Martin Sheen starred as a person tackling El Camino de Santiago path in 2010’s religious The Method; Reese Witherspoon performed the depressed Cheryl Strayed within the 2014 true story of her 1100 mile hike on the Pacific Crest Path; and Mark Wahlberg starred in one other true story, 2020’s Joe Bell a couple of father who walks throughout America in protest of the bullying of his son.
All of those movies, and different related tales of willpower in opposition to all odds, had been admirable makes an attempt however not at all times profitable films as generally dramatizing the journey is usually a little repetitive. The place Elliott succeed with a positive Lenkiewicz template, is getting us immediately engaged within the travails of Ray (Gillian Anderson) and Moth (Jason Isaacs), a pair who might be you or me as life hits them exhausting within the intestine and The Salt Path turns into one way or the other a treatment, a religious redemption nevertheless short-term, to set them on a brand new path (actually and figuritively) in life. Is it an journey? Is it madness or an existential mid-life disaster? In some methods it’s paying homage to the premise of John Cheever’s The Swimmer and its movie adaptation the place Burt Lancaster swam from one neighbor’s pool to a different, encountering varied folks alongside the best way. However furthermore it’s the story of those two born to return collectively to expertise life collectively, regardless of how exhausting that will get.
After unreasonably being evicted from their B&B, and checking account dried up[ due to legal expenses and lose their farm and all else , this likeable couple decide to fulfil a dream and live off the land as it were by embarking with just chump change on an ambitious walk covering 630 breathtaking miles, even as Moth has had a pretty devastating diagnosis. This might stop most people in their tracks, but in this case only sets this couple off in theirs.
The story from this point on becomes episodic as they make their way, stopping at various points and towns, interacting with the locals and relatives. bleeding an atm dry just for enough to get food, and even for Ray getting a job shearing sheep. Nothing hugely life threatening happens along the way, no sudden tidal wave or earthquakes, none of the usual movie tropes, but rather a love story of two people making the most of where life has brought them to this point. Of course to make this work you need actors of the extraordinary grace and talent of Anderson and Isaacs who are entirely believable as this pair staring down nature as an antidote to the cards life has dealt. Both are excellent in essentially a two-hander although they get support along the way from various people they meet or stay with.
With Helene Louvart’s excellent cinematography a real plus, The Salt Path is a cinematic journey worth taking. It had its World Premiere tonight at the Toronto International Film Festival . Producers are Elizabeth Karlsen, Stephen Woolley, Lloyd Levin, Beatriz Levin.
Title: The Salt Path
Festival: Toronto
Director: Marianne Elliott
Screenplay: Rebecca Lenkiewicz
Cast: Gillian Anderson, Jason Isaacs, James Lance, Hermione Norris, Megan Placito
Running Time: 1 hour and 55 minutes
Sales Agent: Rocket Science, Black Bear
