EDIE – Review by Sheila Roberts
It’s never too late to embark on an exciting adventure to fulfill a lifelong dream, even if it means taking a few risks along the way. In Simon Hunter’s inspiring Edie, Edith Moore (Sheila Hancock) regrets not climbing Mt. Suilven in the Scottish Highlands after her Dad proposed they do it many decades ago but her authoritarian husband disapproved. Since then, Edie has spent her life being a dutiful wife and mother, taking care of her family, and meeting their needs and expectations while neglecting her own. Now, at 83, Edie looks back and resents having wasted so much precious time.
While going through her life possessions after her husband dies, she comes across an old photo of Mt. Suilven in a remote wilderness landscape and decides to do something about it. She abruptly leaves the nursing home where her daughter recently moved her and boards a train to Inverness where she strikes up an acquaintance with Jonny (Kevin Guthrie), a young mountaineer who runs the local camping shop. Their chance encounter leads to a rewarding, life-altering friendship that makes everything she hoped to achieve so late in life a genuine possibility. She hires him as her guide, and together, they embark on the ambitious adventure she never thought she would get to enjoy.
Hancock, who is a veteran stage and screen actress, turns a sentimental role into a sublime performance as the newly widowed Edie whose courage and determination take her places her body can barely go anymore. Guthrie’s performance is heartfelt and convincing as the charming, well-intentioned Jonny. The generational gap between their characters offers interesting perspectives and makes for some very tender, uplifting moments.
