However, the plot can sometimes be implausible, and some supporting characters feel underdeveloped. The pacing is often ploddingly slow.

Broadbent joined the project to play Harold in February 2021. [4] Broadbent had previously also voiced the audiobook. He also previously worked with the author of the book when she worked as an actress, Joyce had played Perdita to his Leontes in a production of The Winter’s Tale at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield in 1987. [5] Penelope Wilton joined the project in June 2021. [6] Filming [ edit ]Six miles south of Stroud he phones the hospice and is told that the stay, cure, or miracle is working. His decision to walk appears vindicated. He finds a cast-off sleeping bag and carries it with another bag, looking now every bit a gentleman of the road. Faced with a shrunken bank balance he starts to sleep out. In Cheltenham he gives away his guidebook and posts home his debit card and other items. In the renunciation is the wonder of the impossible. Jim Broadbent is of course marvellous, and the supporting cast of tag alongside are funny, but this good hearted film ultimately is about loss and pain and the director and writer never manage to lift us far enough away from tragedy to gain insight and relief.

Harold is not a particularly fit man, and the journey is long and arduous. But as he walks, he begins to reflect on his life and the choices he has made. He also begins to make new connections with the people he meets along the way. Harold is an ordinary man who has passed through life, living on the side lines, until he goes to post a letter one day...and just keeps walking. So it's a low key account of someone with deep rooted feelings of guilt about past matters who becomes inspired to do something worthwhile. His wife really doesn't get it and, I have to say, neither do I. Stories are make believe. They don't always necessarily have to reflect real life. But this is no fantasy adventure. It's a story about a supposedly ordinary old bloke undertaking something, supposedly, extraordinary in a pretty ordinary world, so some grounding in reality would fit. But nothing about this is believable. Why would someone who has been around for well over seventy years be inspired by a few words from a shop assistant to change the course of his life? And having become so inspired why would he adopt the course of taking what in real life would be an utterly futile 500 mile walk? And why would other people be in some way inspired by this lunacy? The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry is a wonderful, heart warming and at times heart wrenching story of Harold Fry who decides to walk 500 miles to visit an old dying friend, whilst leaving his wife and life behind him.Joyce’s ‘The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry,’ [ dead link], The Washington Post 25 July 2012, retrieved 10 March 2014 The trailer makes this look like one of those films about quirky old Brits up to something oddball which turns out to be life-affirming, uplifting, inspiring or the like. Well the first bit is true. Pilgrims" are the people who attach themselves to "Harold" on the course of his 60 plus days hoofing it from one end of the UK to the other to support a friend who's terminally ill. Maher, Kevin (28 April 2023). "The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry review — a deep dive into the souls of a retired couple". The Times . Retrieved 11 May 2023.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry was released in the United Kingdom on 28 April 2023, by eOne. It was the last film to be distributed by Entertainment One in the United Kingdom before the distributor's UK division was shut down on July 20, 2023. [1] Reception [ edit ] Critical response [ edit ] The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, by Rachel Joyce — review, The Spectator 19 April 2012, retrieved 10 March 2014Harvey, Chris (22 April 2023). "Jim Broadbent on JK Rowling: 'I think she is amazing – I would support her' ". The Telegraph . Retrieved 22 April 2023. Quiet Man Gets a Life and Also a Blister, review in The New York Times, 29 July 2012, retrieved 10 March 2014

Before to long, he receives a letter from old colleague Queenie, who’s in a hospice and writing to everyone to ‘say goodbye’, and it did amuse me that when he begins to read it, he exclaimed as I like to do: “Good Lord!” Ross, Deborah (29 April 2023). "I cried twice: The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry reviewed". The Spectator . Retrieved 11 May 2023.

The main lead does well with the part he is given as do the other characters on the side. I did feel the film was a little bit on the depressing side of things, but wasn't too bad & was sort of justified given the story-line. But it’s not just about Mr Broadbent, but also Ms Wilton, who starts to feel like she’s been abandoned, as well as getting the impression he’s living the life she wishes she’d led, and there’s wonderful performances from both of them. Nature plays an incredibly strong part in "The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry" as does the landscape and the people he meets.