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| Sheila Hancock as Edith "Edie" Moore, one determined lady |
Edie's domineering husband George—whom she has unstintingly cared for for thirty years after he'd had a severe stroke that left him mute and barely mobile—dies one day, leaving Edie to contemplate her sudden, new freedom and the rest of her life. Her daughter Nancy (Morgan) helps Edie move out of her house and into an elder-care facility; while Nancy is clearing out some of Edie's possessions, she happens upon an old diary of Edie's, one in which she had been pouring out, years ago, all of her youthful bitterness about being trapped by her husband, forced into a daily routine of constant care with no respite, and frustrated by her ever-mounting resentment and a desire simply to escape her situation. Nancy, not fully understanding what Edie had gone through (her father apparently never let on to his daughter about how controlling he'd been of his wife), gets angry at her mother, whom she now sees as cold and selfish. Edie is mortified that Nancy had read her long-ago words.
As all of these bad circumstances come together—George's sudden death, the jarring move to a care facility, and her daughter's burning anger—Edie is left heartbroken. Among Edie's possessions is an old, yellowed postcard from her father, with whom she used to go outdoors, fish, and camp. The front of the postcard shows Suilven ("soolvuhn" or "soolivyuhn"), a mountain in the Scottish Highlands. The back of the postcard has a note from her father, inviting her to join him on a climb "for old time's sake." The climb never happened. Edie goes to her favorite restaurant for breakfast and apologizes for being late; the smiling manager, who knows her well, reassures her that it's never too late. Edie hears this, and something clicks. She calls and leaves a message for her daughter, saying she'll be going away for a few days, then she packs up some gear and clothing and heads out to the Highlands.
Once at her destination, Edie is literally bowled over by a young couple in a rush at the train station: Jonnie (Guthrie) and Fiona (Manson), who co-manage a local outdoor store that isn't making a profit, leaving them desperate for cash. Jonnie has a shady friend named McLaughlin (Brannigan), who persuades Jonnie to tap Edie for money by acting as her mountain guide and pre-climb trainer. Jonnie and Edie are off to a prickly start, neither liking the other very much, but over time, as they get to know and respect each other, Jonnie begins to understand Edie's desire to summit Suilven, but while he wants to help Edie, he's burdened by Fiona's resentment, fueled by her belief that (1) Jonnie is too prone to charitable distractions, and (2) Edie doesn't have the strength or fortitude to make it up the mountain, which requires going up some steep slopes to reach the top.
By this point, I think anyone can predict how the movie will end, but what's interesting is how it ends with personal triumph while leaving a myriad of loose ends: will Edie, changed by her experience, reconcile with her daughter? Will Jonnie and Fiona stay together or break up? Will the idealistic Jonnie and the cynical McLaughlin, so temperamentally different, remain friends? Will Edie, having found herself, remain at the elder-care facility?
Along with being fairly predictable, the movie has a meandering pace and feel; I didn't resent this, however; I enjoyed the scenes of the Scottish Highlands, which were indisputably gorgeous, including the incredible views from the top of Suilven. The landscape, with all of its climatological moods, was definitely a character, not merely a setting. And Sheila Hancock's Edie has great chemistry with young Kevin Guthrie as Jonnie.
A bit like "The Way," this movie isn't meant to be a pulse-pounding actioner; being a movie about a walk-turned-climb and a grandmotherly figure's determined pilgrimage, it's plodding and deliberate. Incredibly, actress Sheila Hancock did in fact summit Suilven while in her mid-80s, a feat I probably couldn't accomplish now given my post-stroke problems with balance. For all of its flaws, "Edie" is a good movie with its heart in the right place, and it has a good message about how it's never too late to follow a dream: Qui audet adipiscitur. (It was also a relief to see Scots culture and hear Scottish accents without most of the stereotypical crassness, roughness, drunkenness, and general asininity unfairly associated with the Scots.)
You're only as old as you feel, I suppose. But it is pretty inspirational to see a granny out climbing mountains. We have an old guy here (mid-80s) who hikes alone in places I'd fear to tread. Anyway, nice review, as usual.
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