Walking with Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs

It’s a seemingly simple premise for a two-hour feature film. A couple who had planned to retire in a guesthouse are forced to leave their home at a moment that, at first glance, is utterly devastating. Now that their children are back at school, they decide to pack up everything they can and set off on the Salt Path, a 630-mile walk from Dorset to Somerset on the southwest coast of England. To make matters worse, the husband has just been diagnosed with an incurable neurodegenerative disease, but they are determined and ready to complete this adventure, possibly their last, because they have no other choice.

Oh, and it’s a completely true story.

Superbly directed by four-time Tony Award winner Marianne Elliott (War horse, Angels in America, Business, Death of a Salesman with a script by Rebecca Lenkiewicz (She said) based on Raynor Winn’s 2018 memoirs. Salt Path is an inspiring story of love and resilience in a situation that would otherwise break most people, especially a couple entering their later years with little hope in an unforgiving system. It’s certainly not the first film based on someone who embarks on an ambitious trek for personal reasons. Martin Sheen played a man who braves the El Camino de Santiago trail in the 2010 spiritual film. Way; Reese Witherspoon played a depressed Cheryl Strayed in Wildthe true story of her 1,100-mile 2014 Pacific Crest Trail hike, and Mark Wahlberg played the lead role in another true story, the 2020 film. Joe Bellabout a father who treks across America to protest the bullying of his son.

All of these films and others like them about determination against all odds were admirable attempts, but not always successful films, as the dramatization of the journey can sometimes be a bit repetitive. Where Elliott succeeds with Lenkiewicz’s good template is by immediately involving us in the travails of Ray (Gillian Anderson) and Moth (Jason Isaacs), a couple who could be you or me, as life hits them hard in the stomach and the Salt Path becomes somehow a remedy, a spiritual redemption, albeit a temporary one, to establish their on a new path (literally and figuratively) in life. Is this an adventure? Is this madness or an existential midlife crisis? In a way, it’s reminiscent of John Cheever’s premise Float and its film adaptation, in which Burt Lancaster swam from one neighbor’s pool to another, meeting different people along the way. But more than that, it’s a story about these two who were born to meet and experience life together, no matter how difficult it is.

After being wrongfully evicted from their boarding house, having their bank account drained due to legal fees, and losing their farm, this lovely couple decides to follow their dream of living off the land, as if by embarking on an ambitious trek covering 630 breathtaking miles on a shoestring, despite Moth receiving a pretty devastating diagnosis. That might give most people pause, but in this case, it just sets the couple off their.

From there, the story becomes episodic as the characters make their way along the road, stopping at various points and towns, interacting with locals and relatives, draining cash from an ATM to get enough food, and even to get Ray a job shearing sheep. There’s nothing seriously life-threatening along the way, no tidal waves or earthquakes, none of the usual movie tropes, but rather a love story of two people making the most of what life has thrown at them. Of course, to make this work, it takes the extraordinary grace and talent of Anderson and Isaac, who are completely believable as this couple looking to nature as an antidote to the cards life has dealt them. Both are excellent in what is essentially a two-person game, although they receive support along the way from various people they meet or stay with.

Thanks to the excellent cinematography of Helene Louvart, this film is a real asset, Salt Path is a cinematic journey worth taking. The world premiere took place on Thursday at the Toronto International Film Festival. The producers are Elizabeth Karlsen, Stephen Woolley, Lloyd Levin and Beatriz Levin.

Title: Salt Path

Festival: Toronto

Director: Marianne Elliott

Scenario: Rebecca Lenkiewicz

To throw: Gillian Anderson, Jason Isaacs, James Lance, Hermione Norris, Megan Placito

Duration: 1 hour and 55 minutes

Sales Agent: Rocket Science, Black Bear