The long walk

Walking takes centre stage on the big screen for good reason. Here’s why film-makers can’t resist a good trail tale

It’s possibly ill-advised to walk 600-odd miles in shabby old yachting shoes and a tie, but it’s a whim retiree Harold Fry seems ready to follow in Rachel Joyce’s 2012 novel The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry. Just a short time after leaving home in Devon to mail a heartfelt letter to his former colleague Queenie, Harold makes the snap decision to hand deliver it instead – perhaps a mite ambitious given that Queenie lives in Northumberland, at the other end of England. For every tread mark his ill-advised footwear makes on the path thereafter, another penny drops as to what’s going on in Harold’s psyche. Is his quest to cast off a deep emotional scar weighing down his (also unsuitable) baggage? Is it trying to right a wrong?

Implausible as the film’s premise may sound, there is something about walking – the simple act of putting one foot in front of the other – that miraculously makes anything seem possible. And herein lies the sweet spot for film-makers, not least those who recognised the potential of Harold’s tale for movie adaptation, with doe-eyed actor Jim Broadbent in his shoes. Take one deceptively simple narrative (what’s not gentle and linear about walking?), add in a character both disconnected from his moorings and pushed to his physical limits, heighten with one stirring score and, hey presto, that’s cinematic magic.