23 Walks movie review (2020) | Little White Lies

23 Walks

25 Sep 2020 / Released: 25 Sep 2020

Words by Lillian Crawford

Directed by Paul Morrison

Starring Bob Goody, Dave Johns, and Graham Cole

Elderly couple wearing winter clothing, walking in a forest.
Elderly couple wearing winter clothing, walking in a forest.
2

Anticipation.

Didn’t Paul Morrison do that film with Robert Pattinson as Salvador Dalí?

3

Enjoyment.

Alison Steadman creates some beautifully tender moments from weak material.

2

In Retrospect.

Mostly harmless.

A cou­ple in twi­light years become acquaint­ed over a series of dog walks in Paul Morrison’s cheery drama.

The for­mu­la of the grey pound’ is well-estab­lished. Get some famil­iar (white British) faces, stir in enough sac­cha­rine to keep the oldies awake, and add some relat­able geri­atric humour.

What’s often sur­pris­ing about these films is just how bleak they can be – alleged feel-good’ films like 2017’s Find­ing Your Feet and 2012’s Song for Mar­i­on killed off half their casts. Rather than offer­ing uplift they just end up upset­ting my old nan. It’s more than she bar­gains for when she rocks up to the cin­e­ma on a Thurs­day morn­ing for her free cup­pa and diges­tive biscuit.

Nan would like 23 Walks. It’s light, sweet and most­ly inof­fen­sive. There’s a hint of xeno­pho­bia: Ali­son Steadman’s daugh­ter has run off to the Canaries to mar­ry a Spaniard”, but she comes round to the idea, learn­ing the lan­guage and look­ing for­ward to the trip. There’s even a very odd scene in which she dons a black dress and starts singing to an atten­tive audi­ence of dog walk­ers. Nan wouldn’t like the occa­sion­al bad lan­guage and fair­ly explic­it sex, with the 12A cer­tifi­cate like­ly to put her off.

Con­verse­ly, it’s those salti­er moments that are the most enjoy­able. While Dave Johns seems less at home with the wood­en meet-cute dia­logue of Paul Morrison’s screen­play than he did with the raw­ness of his lead role in Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake, he’s more con­vinc­ing when he’s hurl­ing exple­tives into the bushes.

Steadman’s hes­i­tant desire to rekin­dle her sex­u­al­i­ty is heart­break­ing, and her girl­ish glee when the moment final­ly comes elic­its a smile. Con­sid­er­ing it’s called 23 Walks, it’s the domes­tic moments that shine, although the adorable canines Hen­ry and Tilly are wor­thy sup­port­ing stars. Maybe not quite enough to warm a sceptic’s heart, but cer­tain­ly a pleas­ant enough out­ing for your nan.

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