Cecil says: We went to see Edie because we quite fancied being transported over to the Scottish Highlands, which is where the film is largely set. And from that point of view, Edie was a great success, with much of it filmed in and around Lochinver, a place we know well and have fond memories of visiting in years gone by.
The idea of the story is also not bad: 83 year old woman,
who was a bit of a wild child early in her life, but then lived through a
controlling marriage and had to care for her not very nice sounding husband for
some 30 years, is suddenly free when he dies one day.
This liberates Edie, very well played by Sheila Hancock by
the way, to follow a dream of climbing a certain mountain up in the far NW of
Scotland. So that basic premise is all very well, and could have made quite an
interesting film, dotted through maybe with historical snippets of her wild
youth with her Dad, and her subdued marriage.
But instead, we are taken through a rather implausible
link-up with a young man who just keeps doing rather unlikely things. For
starters, on Inverness railway station platform, he and his girlfriend knock Edie to
the ground as they rush for their train, and that just felt very unbelievable
knowing the width of those platforms and the small number of passengers on
them…
But then, over and over, we have unlikely or caricatural
scenes, like the night Edie gets taken to the local pub, and everyone is either
really unfriendly, laughing at her, or even knocks her to the ground again as
she is whirled across the dance floor. We have never ever been to a small
Scottish town and found people behave like that, even at an incredibly busy New
Years Eve ceilidh last year, in fact.
It made me wonder if the writer had ever actually spent much
time in Scotland, so I looked for her name when the credits rolled at the end,
and sure enough it Elizabeth O’Halloran is from the west coast of Ireland, not
Scotland, and it made me wonder if her portrayal of small town Scotland was not
actually more based on her knowledge of west coast Ireland (not that I know that
area myself).
The relationship between Edie and Jonny doesn’t really work,
and since this is central to the film itself, I’m afraid in that sense, the
film itself doesn’t work.
Given how difficult the climb to the summit was, would he
really have let an 83-year old go for it alone? When he did go up to find her
after the rainstorm, mightn’t it have been more interesting to discuss why
actually reaching the summit itself mattered so much, as the experience of even
getting that far was achievement enough, wasn’t it?
The moment she gets there is backed by full orchestral
soundtrack, presumably designed to overwhelm us with the emotions she must feel
in that instant, but I found myself not being moved by this scene at all, and
wondering why the tug of the heartstrings?
Oh and Jonny’s own relationship with his girlfriend just
came across as false. I mean, so he wants to go up a hill to spend time with an
old lady? Why should that matter? Would the entrepreneurial girlfriend really
have been so upset at his ‘disloyalty’? It just came across as a mountain out
of a molehill.
So, great scenery, some nice filming, and basic idea OK, but
the plot and the dialogue pretty average, I’m afraid.
**.5, but ***.5 for the setting
Bea says: Great concept, beautifully filmed, but not well written.
On paper, this film really works, and on screen it gets a 2/3 - the idea is really good, and in our times of an increasing aged population surely very resonant too? Cecil has summarised the plot, so I won't, but suffice to say this must be a very common experience for older women now; to have spent quite some years caring for an ill and/or disabled partner, coming out of a marriage that may or may not have been particularly fulfilling, and still with relative health and fitness.
The idea of a journey of independence, of discovery, of tying up loose ends, is really workable. However, perhaps it might have been better to get someone to write the script who had at least some insight into this situation, or who could place themselves in it, and/or who had some knowledge of Scottish culture.
I am not Scottish, but have worked and lived there, and I winced a bit at the portrayal, as Scots are generally more friendly and much more thoughtful of others than the characters were portrayed. On the way home, I said to Cecil that it felt like a first draft, but later Cecil did some research and told me it was at least the fourth or fifth draft of the script....It had potential, but needed a good editorial steer away from cliché and towards depth.
The filming was beautiful. The Scottish Highlands tend to play themselves in any film they feature in, and this was no exception, but I particularly liked the sequence when Edie is walking and the quietness, and sounds and sights of the natural world are emphasised. It's rare to see that kind of still, quiet, slow filming in any feature film, and I was lost in it. The filming made the experience of seeing this film worthwhile to me.
Don't go expecting any good dialogue or characterisation - go for the views and the filming.
**.5
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