A Very Rare Film Review

 Not a rare film, but a rare review as I hadn't been to the cinema for ages. I discovered the Regal in Stowmarket were having a morning showing of 'The Salt Path' yesterday. All the other times were afternoons and evenings (watching tennis times!)

As most people reading this will already know the film is based on the book Raynor Winn wrote about the 600 mile walk  on the South West Coast Path that she and her husband Moth did after losing their home and their money and at the same time Moth's diagnosis with a rare brain disease - Corticobasal Degeneration.

They had invested money in a friends business and when the business failed leaving huge debts they were taken to court by their friend, battled for 3 years but eventually losing and had to forfeit their home which was a B&B business in Wales and all their money. They decided that the only way to cope was to pack a few belongings, tent and sleeping bags and to start walking.

Walking seemed to help with Moth's condition despite the extremes of weather they encountered on the way. Luckily a friend offered them accommodation of a shed for the winter in return for turning the shed into a holiday let.

The film starring Gillian Anderson as Raynor and Jason Issacs as Moth has gorgeous views of the wild lands, wildlife and coasts of that part of Great Britain, which for me was one of the best parts.

Their walk was in 2013 and the book published in 2019, which was when I read it and was soon a best seller. The film wasn't as tear jerky as I thought it was going to be thank goodness and  there were only 4 other people in the audience.

12 years on from his diagnosis Moth is still alive and Raynor is still walking and writing. Since the first book there have been two more, The Wild Silence and Landlines and another due to be published in October.

Raynor Winn is not the first person to write about this walk - I read "Five Hundred Mile Walkies" by Mark Wallington way back in the late 1980's.