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Irish Examiner
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Irish Examiner
Film review: Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs are remarkable in The Salt Path
The Salt Path ★★★★★ The Salt Path Casting around in desperation in the moments before they are forcibly removed from their home, Ray alights on a battered travel guide, and makes a snap decision: despite Moth's incurable degenerative disease, the pair pack a small tent and start hiking out around the West Somerset Coastal Path. And that, in a nutshell, is the plot of The Salt Path, a story salted not only by ocean spray but bitter tears as Ray and Moth take stock of their lives, their marriage and themselves whilst slowly hiking the hard yards into their precarious future. Adapted by Rebecca Lenkiewicz from Raynor Winn's memoir, and directed by Marianne Elliott, The Salt Path is a story of major losses and tiny victories, of constant pain and simple joys, of sifting life's hard-earned truths from the chaff of ephemeral irrelevancies. The slow, epic trek is regularly punctuated with unexpected meetings, occasional rudeness and — more frequently — the kindness of strangers. With no roof over their head, Ray and Moth become more observant of the world around them, growing closer to nature and adapting their pace to the slower rhythms of nature. There's humour here too: at one point Moth is mistaken for the English poet laureate, Simon Armitage, which leads to a very welcome cold drink, hot meal, and even a massage for Moth's weary body; later, Moth — who is reading Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf as he trudges along — will lean into the mistaken identity and busk an impromptu public reading that buys that evening's fish and chips. But this is no idyllic hippy-dippy yarn: the couple are at the mercy of the ever-changing weather, subject to brutal economic realities and acutely aware that Moth's agony is worsening the further they go. Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs deliver remarkable performances, and particularly in terms of the couple's intimacy: married for 20 years, Ray and Winn are like a pair of trees growing into one another, stripped bare by an unkind climate, bent but never yielding. Marianne Elliott, transitioning from directing theatre and TV, delivers a film as spare as the story's plot; the film is as unsentimental and healing as the windswept landscape itself. All told, it's a tour de force. theatrical release Karate Kid: Legends ★★★☆☆ Jackie Chan, Ben Wang and Ralph Macchio in 'Karate Kid: Legends' The first rule of Kung Fu, apparently, is that everything is Kung Fu. Karate Kid: Legends (PG) stars Ben Wang as Li Fong, a Beijing-bred teenager and Kung Fu fanatic whose life is upended when his mother (Ming-na Wen) relocates to New York. There he meets Mia (Sadie Stanley), the daughter of washed-up boxer Victor (Joshua Jackson), whose pizza restaurant owes a large debt to a local mobster. And so, against his mother's wishes, Li starts training for the Five Boroughs street-fighting tournament and its $50,000 prize, aided and abetted by a pair of bickering mentors, aka the eponymous legends Mr Han (Jackie Chan) and the original karate kid, Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio). Plot-wise, Jonathan Entwhistle's movie pretty much retells the story of Karate Kid (1984), although here, in a reversal of roles, the young Li gets to train the older Victor as the latter prepares for a make-or-break comeback bout, blending Kung Fu elements — the ability to 'move like water' and become sinuous, unbreakable — into the more traditional boxing skills. The young Ben Wang is an amiable presence in the lead role, even if Li's transition from martial arts novice to maestro is far too rapid to be plausible; meanwhile, the supporting characters are a likeable bunch. The martial arts are fast and furious, and the ever reliable Jackie Chan brings some much-needed humour to the proceedings. It's solid, but no knock-out. theatrical release Read More TV review: Stories of Surrender shows Bono baldly defending his reputation
Business Journals
16-05-2025
- Business
- Business Journals
Viking-inspired adult beverage company opens in former NKY winery space
A winemaker specializing in the beverage made famous by Vikings and Beowulf is now open in Northern Kentucky.
Sydney Morning Herald
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
As a couple in trouble, Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs find a path
THE SALT PATH ★★★★ M. 115 minutes. In cinemas May 15 I spent much of The Salt Path in a nervous sweat. From the very beginning, it seems like a story that's going to end in a screen awash with tears. It's about a slow-going marathon – a 1000-kilometre walk along Britain's West Coast undertaken by Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs as a couple who have hit hard times. They start off from a cliff in Somerset, with Anderson's Ray Winn looking worried as her husband, Moth, struggles up their first hill, dragging his left foot. Yet they press on, sleeping in their small tent, boiling noodles for dinner and weathering the contempt of dog-walkers who don't like campers intruding on their patch. And while they trudge through the bracken, we take an excursion into their past via a series of flashbacks explaining the reason they have been forced to go on the road. An unwise financial investment has plunged them into a debt so large they have lost their farm and everything else they own. And even more disastrous is the cause of Moth's foot trouble. I'll spare you the medical details but the prognosis leaves little room for hope. In the face of misfortune on this scale, it's tempting to tune out and leave them to it, but Anderson and Isaacs are both so appealing in the roles that you can't help becoming involved. Now and again they make a move so rash that it has you muttering in frustration, but they also have a taste for gallows humour which bubbles up when the going is particularly tough. I too shared their rising sense of suspense on every visit to an ATM and I admired their resilience when the noodles ran out. And there are light moments. At one point, a jaunty figure with a Panama hat and an ice-cream (James Lance) invites them to his luxurious house to meet his glamorous wife and her equally glamorous friends, and all is going well until an unexpected revelation kicks in and the lunch offer evaporates. It's not an entirely wasted experience. Up to this point, Moth has left Ray to handle the guidebook and any money they have left. Hunger, however, proves a great inspiration, and while Ray is gazing soulfully into the window of a fish-and-chip shop, he suddenly leaps up and announces to the passing crowd that he's about to perform. People stop, looking bemused, as he launches into a reading from Beowulf, the book he has been carrying in his rucksack. And such is the energy of his delivery that he's a great success. His hat is passed round and they have money for lunch.
The Age
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
As a couple in trouble, Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs find a path
THE SALT PATH ★★★★ M. 115 minutes. In cinemas May 15 I spent much of The Salt Path in a nervous sweat. From the very beginning, it seems like a story that's going to end in a screen awash with tears. It's about a slow-going marathon – a 1000-kilometre walk along Britain's West Coast undertaken by Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs as a couple who have hit hard times. They start off from a cliff in Somerset, with Anderson's Ray Winn looking worried as her husband, Moth, struggles up their first hill, dragging his left foot. Yet they press on, sleeping in their small tent, boiling noodles for dinner and weathering the contempt of dog-walkers who don't like campers intruding on their patch. And while they trudge through the bracken, we take an excursion into their past via a series of flashbacks explaining the reason they have been forced to go on the road. An unwise financial investment has plunged them into a debt so large they have lost their farm and everything else they own. And even more disastrous is the cause of Moth's foot trouble. I'll spare you the medical details but the prognosis leaves little room for hope. In the face of misfortune on this scale, it's tempting to tune out and leave them to it, but Anderson and Isaacs are both so appealing in the roles that you can't help becoming involved. Now and again they make a move so rash that it has you muttering in frustration, but they also have a taste for gallows humour which bubbles up when the going is particularly tough. I too shared their rising sense of suspense on every visit to an ATM and I admired their resilience when the noodles ran out. And there are light moments. At one point, a jaunty figure with a Panama hat and an ice-cream (James Lance) invites them to his luxurious house to meet his glamorous wife and her equally glamorous friends, and all is going well until an unexpected revelation kicks in and the lunch offer evaporates. It's not an entirely wasted experience. Up to this point, Moth has left Ray to handle the guidebook and any money they have left. Hunger, however, proves a great inspiration, and while Ray is gazing soulfully into the window of a fish-and-chip shop, he suddenly leaps up and announces to the passing crowd that he's about to perform. People stop, looking bemused, as he launches into a reading from Beowulf, the book he has been carrying in his rucksack. And such is the energy of his delivery that he's a great success. His hat is passed round and they have money for lunch.
BBC News
20-03-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
New stamps feature eight mythical creatures
A brand new set of stamps are to be issued featuring illustrations of weird and wonderful creatures. The eight stamps show mythical figures and legendary characters from UK folklore. The Loch Ness Monster, Beowulf and Black Shuck (a folk tale about a fearsome dog that terrified the people of Norfolk), are just some of the creatures featured. Others include mythical beings that are said to have inspired J.K Rowling as she wrote Harry Potter, including a grindylow. The stamps were illustrated by London-based artist Adam Simpson and will be released as collectable items at who are some of the creatures on them and what are their stories? See if you recognise any of them.
