28/04/2023 - Behind the quirky title of Hettie Macdonald’s film lies a surprisingly profound, often sad yet ultimately hopeful look at apathy, faith and self-sacrifice

Reading the barebones premise of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry [+see also:
trailer
film profile], and considering its position as a “grey pound” film, it would be natural to expect a lighthearted, nostalgia-tinged journey through the beautiful British countryside. Released today in the UK via eOne, Hettie Macdonald’s film does fit that description to a degree, but it is refreshingly free of the forced optimism and unrealistic hijinks that usually accompany anything “unlikely” in film — be it a friendship, a romance, or indeed a pilgrimage. 

The inciting event itself is anything but remarkable, and just as well could have passed unnoticed by the titular Harold Fry (Jim Broadbent) and his wife Maureen (Penelope Wilton). It’s an ordinary day in their blandly decorated house in Devon when Harold receives a letter from a hospice in Berwick-upon-Tweed, written by a former colleague on her deathbed. Maureen’s non-reaction is a casually heartbreaking hint at just how common this kind of news must be for the elderly couple, and Harold’s decision to write back seems nothing more than the polite thing to do. But on his way to post his letter, Harold keeps walking to mailboxes further and further away, until he finally decides not to stop walking at all: he will travel the several hundred miles that separate him from Queenie, for that is the woman’s name, entirely on foot. This decision is partly encouraged by a chat with a young woman at his local gas station, who casually mentions that her faith in her aunt’s recovery helped the woman heal. The wide-eyed Harold takes this story as his inspiration for the rationale behind his long journey: as long as he keeps walking, Queenie must keep on living. 

Harold isn’t a religious man, and this belief obviously has no basis in reality — though hearing about his trip makes the lonely Queenie visibly chipper, according to her nurses. It is the filmmaking here that gives us a sense of why, and how, the man keeps going. As Harold meets various strangers on his journey — offering a glass of water, or a place to rest his badly injured feet — the film does not imbue these encounters with outsized significance. Several times, we cut from one situation to the next without so much as a goodbye. Walking in this way, for Harold, isn’t about meeting new people, or even admiring the landscape; it’s about putting one foot in front of the other, with no time to spend on getting to know people or places in much depth. Though it may look like a journey turned towards the world, avoidance is essentially built into it. 

Harold himself does not realise this right away. But spending much of his time alone, he cannot avoid his own thoughts for long, and they soon bring him to his troubled son David (Earl Cave). As elusive flashbacks reveal more of Harold’s past and his family, we come to understand the appeal of such a mad undertaking: a lifetime of passivity dictated by logic and common sense, finally made good by one spontaneous and irrational project. 

It’s a surprisingly frank look at a certain British way of life, polite and unassuming but hiding debilitating levels of repression, a harsh reality that Harold’s momentum can only partially conceal. This does not make for a cheery film, as Harold’s can-do attitude — but also the enthusiasm of the press, and of the “pilgrims” who eventually decide to follow him — is undercut by an ambient mood of regret. But the realism in Harold’s encounters with strangers, some well-meaning, others hostile or simply confused, is very refreshing. 

Based on the novel of the same name by Rachel Joyce, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry was produced by UK companies Essential Cinema, Free Range Films, Ingenious Media, and Rose Pine Productions. International sales are handled by Embankment Films.