Woman tackles a mountain in the moving film ‘Edie’
LOS ANGELES: In the northwest of Scotland, there stands a glacier-carved mountain called Suilven. Climbing it is not for the timid. But that’s not a word that describes the unusual heroine determined to conquer Suilven in the film “Edie .” Edith Moore — everyone calls her Edie — is no ordinary climber. She’s 83 and has been sedentary for most of that time. That mountain, though, looms large in her mind in this quiet, unrushed and moving tale of age and will. Director Simon Hunter spends as much time focusing on the crags of the glorious mountain as the ones on Edie’s face, making it sometimes seem as if the Scotish Tourism Board and AARP teamed up to make a movie.
Edie, lovingly portrayed by the brilliant Sheila Hancock, is a biter and stubborn woman when we first meet her. She’s been taking care of her ill and controlling husband for decades, nursing a long-held dream to climb Suilven. (Her last name is a clue: She wants more). His death liberates her, sending her to the Scotish Highlands, finally. “I’ve lived a whole life and most of it I would change if I could,” she says. “I’ve wasted so much time doing nothing. I can’t give this up now.” No one she encounters thinks climbing the mountain is a good idea for a woman in her 80s who sometimes has a hard time opening car doors, except for the young co-owner of a local camping shop, Jonny (a soulful Kevin Guthrie). Edie is laughed at by the locals or considered an easy mark, but Jonny and Edie bond despite their age gap. He feels trapped in his life, too.
Together, they get Edie ready for the tough, three-day climb. There are setbacks — “Leave me alone. I’m geriatric,” she jokes — and cool new gear to buy. (Edie is a litle flummoxed by modern climbing jackets. “It’s got holes in it,” she complains. “Yeah,” replies Jonny. “For your thumbs.”) As far as the plot goes, that’s prety much it: Older woman atempts to scale a mountain. Hancock fills in so much of the spare script with her quiet control, her expressive face and eyes. When she finally laughs, you feel it. It might seem flimsy but there’s so much here, including exploring ideas of fulfillment, regret and taking a chance. Plus, it’s refreshing to have a film heroine with white hair and wrinkles. When was the last time we saw an 80-plus woman in a film in a bubble bath drinking water?
The screenplay by Elizabeth O’halloran (from a story by Edward Lynden-bell) doesn’t wrap up everything in a bow at the end — it actually just sort of ends, abruptly — and Debbie Wiseman’s eager and overemotional score sometimes undermines the actors’ more quiet work. But the upliting “Edie” is worthy of your time, mostly thanks to Hancock and Scotland’s natural beauty.
“Edie,” a Music Box Films release, is unrated. Running time: 102 minutes. Three stars out of four.
Simon Hunter grew up in Dumfriesshire Scotland. Simon made his first film “Spaceman” when he was just seven. He spent his early School years making super 8 epics in the woods rather than atending class! Simon travelled to Zaire to shoot a documentary on super 8 about life on the riverboats that travel on the Congo river. In 1990 he went to study at Film Production at the University for Creative Arts in Farnham, England.
Simon specialised in thriller shorts films and made an ambitious graduation film “Tea and Bullets” which told the tale of two pensioners racing across England looking for King Arthur’s cave. Simon’s first feature, “Lighthouse,” was released theatrically in 2002. Simon subsequently became a much sort ater commercials director before returning to features with Edward R Pressman’s Mutant Chronicles in the Summer of 2006. In 2016 Simon directed his passion project, “Edie” which tells the tale of an older lady who climbs a mountain in Scotland at the age of eight three. The film was completed in 2017 and premiered at the Edinburgh International film festival. The movie went on to win audience awards at the Cleveland, Berkshire and Hell half Mile film festivals.