The Salt Path (A PopEntertainment.com Movie Review)

PopEntertainment
6 minutes ago
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THE SALT PATH (2024)

Starring Gillian Anderson, Jason Isaacs, Denis Lill, James Lance, Hermione Norris, Tucker St. Ivany, Olivia Edwards, Paul Morel, Angus Wright, Jimmy Gorniak, Georgia Henshaw, Tamlyn Henderson, Pippa Hinchley, Amy Griffiths, Megan Placito, Sasha Frost, Jason Gerdes, Polly Kilpatrick, James Craven, Hannah Brownlie, Lainey Shaw, Joe Beer and Dan Ball.

Screenplay by Rebecca Lenkiewicz.

Directed by Marianne Elliott.

Distributed by Rialto Distribution. 115 minutes. Not Rated.

I’ll admit it: stories about long, punishing hikes always make me feel a little inadequate. I’m not the type who dreams of strapping on a backpack and disappearing into the wilderness for weeks. My idea of roughing it is going to a hotel that has basic cable or limited wi-fi.

Still, I do understand the appeal of wide‑open spaces, spectacular scenery, and the strange clarity that comes from putting one foot in front of the other. The Salt Path taps into that impulse – not as a hobby or a challenge, but as a lifeline for two people whose world has suddenly collapsed. And the film shares some of the most spectacular nature and scenery I’ve seen in a film recently.

Based on the 2018 memoir by Raynor Winn, The Salt Path is about a life-changing journey she and her husband took at an age when most people are considering retirement.

Raynor and Moth Winn (Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs) are a sixty-ish couple who have been working hard their entire lives. They built a farm, where they raised two university-aged children who have mostly left the nest. However, as the story begins, they were given five days before being evicted from their long-time home due to a bad investment Moth had made. The bank is also seizing most of their belongings, leaving them with little more than what they can carry.

To make things worse, just days before the eviction they learn that Moth has a terminal disease. His prognosis is uncertain, but the doctors are convinced he probably doesn’t have long.

Since they have no place to be and little to do and very little money with which to do it, they hit upon a slightly whimsical, slightly desperate idea. They have a guidebook by adventurer Paddy Dillon, who describes traversing the South West Coast Path. At 630 miles (1,014 kms), it is the longest National Trail in England. It would normally take 7-8 weeks for people to travel the entire trail, and that’s not taking into consideration that the Winns are no longer young or fully fit, not to mention the complications of Moth’s illness.

Still, since civilization seems to have betrayed them, they decide that it may be good to try to survive in nature for as long as they can – or at least until they can figure out their next move. So they decide to try to recreate Dillon’s journey.

This forms the spine of The Salt Path, the couple just walking together, talking, testing their resolve and experiencing the beauty, wonder and danger of nature. Periodically they run across fellow hikers and have brief interactions with them, sometimes they’ll stop off in quaint little villages along the route and remember they are not alone in the world, but mostly it is just the two of them coming to terms with their lives.

Modern inconveniences – like keeping their cell phone charged or eating well enough on a very limited budget – take a back seat to the journey. (Although, of course both are still very necessary.) When they can, they check in with their kids in the real world – if they can find cell service – and at one point they even pause the hike to take temporary jobs so that they can afford to keep going.

Throughout the trip, the film shares periodic flashbacks which explain how they got to where they are in life, and we are given deeper understanding about the bankruptcy, the losing of their home, and Moth’s illness.

Ultimately, The Salt Path is a love story. It luxuriates in the love of nature – even when it may be unpredictable and dangerous. Even more, it is about the tested, comfortable, deep love of a man and a woman who have spent decades together and experienced ups and downs but always want to be there for each other – for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health.

The heart of the film is in the performances, and Isaacs and particularly Anderson bring these characters to imperfect, desperate, but eventually hopeful life. Their relationship feels lived in and their love feels true and yet not romanticized. The actors recognize these people and show them to be flawed and flummoxed by fate, but able to lean upon each other.

It’s a rather beautiful and inspirational relationship – the type of love and trust that people aspire to – although since the film was made, there has been a bit of controversy about whether or not the memoir massaged the truth.

The film, like the memoir it’s based on, presents the loss of the Winns’ farm as a sudden and devastating injustice. Some later reporting suggested the real circumstances may have been more complicated, but the movie is less interested in legal specifics than in the emotional fallout. Besides, artistic license is standard practice in films based on memoirs. Still, the investigation of the book’s (and thus the film’s) factual accuracy has delayed the release of the film for a couple of years and caused the proposed distribution by Sony Pictures Classics to be scaled back to the indie studio Rialto Distribution.

However, whether it is a true story or an embellished tale, it is quite beautiful in enough ways – the relationship, the settings, the resiliency, the wildlife, the British coast – to make it fully worth taking the trip.

While I personally still have no urge to take off a few months, get a backpack and test my mettle on a nature trail, I do appreciate being allowed to imagine being on such a voyage for a couple of hours.

Jay S. Jacobs

https://youtu.be/r4G-e8fPUyM?si=jllZf7m6DjwmsN4_