The Salt Path, released in the UK last Friday, is an adaptation of Raynor Winn’s memoir of her long-distance walk with her husband Moth along the northern section of the Southwest Coast Path. It is directed by Marianne Elliot (her first feature-length film), from a script by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, so it has a solid theatrical pedigree behind it.

The Winn’s have lost their farm, due to a dodgy investment that Moth made, although this is never really properly explained. There is a suggestion that it was not really their fault, but this is also not properly explained. Moth has recently been diagnosed with a rare and incurable wasting disease, which he is told will at some stage prove fatal. There is the back story in a nutshell, and I liked that it was teased out gently through a series of brief flashbacks however, for me, there needed to be a more complete explanation.

In order to get over the trauma of having lost everything (except each other) and to find time and space to consider the rest of their lives, they set off to walk the first section of the Coast Path, from Minehead to Land’s End, armed with just £40 per week, a guidebook, a tent and a couple of sleeping bags.

Jason Isaacs plays Moth, and by and large I enjoyed his performance, but unfortunately Gillian Anderson, as Ray, has a rather irritating regional accent which comes across as a bit whiny. However that is not the real problem with this film. Given the theatrical pedigree of the creative team, you would have thought they would understand how to build dramatic tension. And yet, the film comes across as very flat – it is just one walking adventure after another, interspersed with the flashbacks and a brief respite with their friend Polly, played by Hermione Norris. I know this is a true story and the Winn’s tale is genuinely inspiring, but as a film this is slow, flat and (whisper this) quite boring in places.

Consider the many British ‘Odyssey films’, including: Joss Ackland in Michael Frayn’s excellent First and Last, back in 1989; James Bolam in The Missing Postman, 1997 (both technically made for television rather than film); Timothy Spall in The Last Bus, 2021; Michael Caine in The great Escaper, 2023; Jim Broadbent in The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, 2023; and so on. Alas, The Salt Path would not come high on this list, and I feel given the nature of this heartwarming, true story, a genuine battle against adversity, it somehow should have done.

The Salt Path is alright if you are looking for a sentimental British film, but I doubt it does justice to the memoir (though I haven’t read it, just seen comments from those that have), and as a standalone film, I cannot really recommend it!