review

Edie

Director: Simon Hunter

Starring: Sheila Hancock, Kevin Guthrie & Paul Brannigan

Released: 29th October

Following her husband’s death, an elderly woman embarks on a trip to fulfill her longtime dream of climbing a mountain in the Scottish Highlands. That the woman – Edie – is played here by Sheila Hancock, whose own husband John Thaw died in 2002, brings a small degree of veracity to Simon Hunter’s quiet, slow-burning drama.

But, in fiction, things are different. Edie had been her late spouse’s carer for 30 years and with him gone she is free to hop on a train to Inverness and head into the wilds, to trek up Suilven. She is accompanied by Jonny (Kevin Guthrie), and along the way the two learn things – about one another, themselves and the wider world. Lead roles for actresses are rare enough, let alone those for octogenarians and there are many who will roundly cheer on Hancock as she gamely strides through the heather.

Michael Bonner


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