The genesis for this film, and the 2018 book on which it is based, could hardly be less propitious. Raynor Winn and Moth, her husband of 32 years, have lost their home, a farm in Wales, to the bailiffs after a series of devastating setbacks in court following a failed business venture which Moth had been drawn into by a ‘friend’. Also, Moth has been diagnosed with a terminal illness. So they decide to do what surely most couples in their 50s would do in such circumstances. They went on a walk. In this case, a 630-mile walk along the South West Coast Path, taking in parts of Somerset, Devon, Cornwall and Dorset. It’s known as The Salt Path, the title of both the book (the cover is shown on the home page) and this film.

The two protagonists are played by Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs. In a recent interview in The Guardian, Raynor Winn said: “I remember thinking, ‘how is that going to work?’ How will someone so perfect and glamorous capture me in that raw state?” She admitted that initially Moth was even more bemused. “He thought I meant Pamela Anderson.” Much of the story is told in flashbacks, and while the dialogue is often very touching and amusing, at the other times it seems like a collection of “oohs” and “aarghs” as the couple battle fatigue and the elements.

While this story has made it to the silver screen and Moth is still alive despite what the doctors told him (he was advised that climbing stairs would prove difficult to navigate; he went off climbing hills and rocks), this is a film about hardship. We see Ray/Gillian ensuring that a single tea bag can make several cuppas. We watch her horrified realisation that she only has £1.38 in her bank account, a situation caused by her inadvertently having paid the house insurance when they no longer have a house. There is one scene in particular where we get the strong sense of how permanently and desperately hungry they are.

The real star of the film may be the drone-shot Cornish scenery; well, that and the weather, both glorious and tempestuous. If Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is your kind of film, then this may not be for you. About the nearest it gets to ‘action’ is when Moth/Jason launches an impromptu public reading in order to raise money to buy some food. Fundamentally, this is a love story.

One aspect of it which is rather shaming for society is the way in which the Winns are shunned by some people they encounter for having committed the ultimate societal sin: being homeless. But that was why they did what they did. At the start of her book, Winn noted why they were doing this. “Because we lost. Lost the case, lost the house, and lost ourselves.” At the end of the book, and of this film, you feel that they may in fact have discovered themselves.