Film review: The Salt Path, Karate Kid: Legends, Along Came Love and Bogancloch

The Salt Path

(115 mins, 12A) Directed by Marianne Elliott; starring Gillian Anderson, Jason Isaacs, James Lance



There’s a stoic and very British school of thought that holds that few problems in life aren’t improved by a lungful of fresh air and a decent walk. And it’s perhaps this that prompts Raynor (Gillian Anderson) and her husband, Moth (Jason Isaacs), when floored by a double whammy of ill-fortune –they find themselves bankrupt and homeless, and Moth is diagnosed with a rare neurodegenerative disease – to pack a few belongings into a pair of rucksacks and hit the South West Coast Path.

It’s an epic, long-distance walk to match the daunting scale of the couple’s problems: a situation so devastating that initially it’s easier just to focus on putting one foot in front of the other than it is to grasp the whole sorry mess. But the more ground they cover and the more blisters and hikers’ battle scars they accrue, the more the couple open up to the majesty of the landscape around them.

The feature debut of Tony and Olivier award-winning theatre director Marianne Elliott, The Salt Path is adapted from the bestselling memoir and nature book by Raynor Winn. It’s a solidly conventional film – brace yourselves for plenty of swooping crane and drone shots of craggy cliffs and voluptuous hillsides – but a rather lovely one nonetheless. There’s something of the generosity of spirit and gentle humour of David Lynch’s The Straight Story in this celebration of the kindness of strangers, endurance of the spirit and the healing power of the wild.

Karate Kid: Legends

(94 mins, 12A) Directed by Jonathan Entwistle; starring Jackie Chan, Ralph Macchio, Ben Wang



As someone who adores martial arts movies, has a weakness for New York-based underdog tales and would watch Jackie Chan in an advertisement for haemorrhoid ointment, Karate Kid: Legends should have been located squarely in my popcorn movie happy place. This latest in the franchise wheels out original star Ralph Macchio (reprising the role of Daniel LaRusso) along with Chan’s Mr Han, who took over mentoring duties in the 2010 remake. But while the film hits all the expected story beats and throws all the right punches, they somehow fail to connect. What’s lacking, as the Han and Dan “Sensei” double act points out in each interminable training montage, is the element of surprise.

Ben Wang stars as Beijing-born kung fu prodigy Li Fong, who is forced to relocate to New York when his doctor mother (Ming-Na Wen) gets a job in the US. Still reeling from the tragic martial arts-related loss of his older brother, Li reluctantly stops fighting to focus on his studies. But his good intentions don’t last; a dizzyingly gymnastic alleyway scrap in defence of boxer turned pizzeria proprietor Victor (Joshua Jackson) sets him on a path to the “Five Boroughs” karate championship. That he’s proficient in kung fu rather than karate doesn’t seem to matter as much as you might expect. Chan’s amiable goofing lightens a picture that’s weighed down by breeze block-subtle life lessons.

Along Came Love

(123 mins, 15) Directed by Katell Quillévéré; starring Anaïs Demoustier, Vincent Lacoste, Morgan Bailey

When Madeleine (Anaïs Demoustier), a single mother and hotel waitress working in a 1950s Normandy resort, meets François (Vincent Lacoste), a wealthy Parisian student, they click instantly, tumbling almost immediately into marriage. But both have secrets. Madeleine is open about her past – her son, Daniel, is the result of a brief affair with a German soldier during the war. But François is more circumspect.

Madeleine only starts to suspect the truth about her husband’s sexuality when they both fall for the same dashing American GI (Morgan Bailey). Despite this, Madeleine pours all her love into her marriage, at the expense of the unfortunate, neglected little Daniel.

This luxuriantly sensual but languidly paced French-language melodrama is a departure for writer-director Katell Quillévéré, best known for her propulsive, knife-edge drama Heal the Living. It’s a personal work for the director, whose inspiration for the story came from the discovery that her grandmother had a child from a relationship with a German soldier.

Handsomely designed and at times slightly overwrought, Along Came Love feels like a direct descendant of the vivid, scandal-drenched 1950s Hollywood melodramas of Douglas Sirk. And while a tighter running time wouldn’t hurt, Demoustier and Lacoste are both terrific in this tale of passion, shame and polyamory.

Bogancloch

(86 mins, U) Directed by Ben Rivers; featuring Jake Williams

This austere, meditative collage of glimpses of the solitary life of Scottish hermit Jake Williams feels unusually in tune with the natural world. It’s not just Williams’s way of living, although this is a man who, for the past four decades, has chosen the company of trees over that of people. Locked wide shots show him wandering through forests, singing reedily to himself; pausing his rickety caravan to scoop up fresh roadkill for supper.

There’s also something organic about the film-making itself. Experimental documentarian Ben Rivers, who has worked with Williams twice before, shoots on black-and-white 16mm film stock so grainy that some frames shimmer with life, as if crawling with tiny insects. Elsewhere, images are partially degraded, giving the picture a mottled quality. It’s as though everything, including the lens, is covered in lichen.

Williams rarely speaks, but as we watch him tenderly coaxing seedlings into the loam, we get a sense of a man who has found peace.