Le Dernier Bus

Timothy Spall stars - brilliantly obvs - as a recently widowed elderly man using his OAP bus pass to travel from his home in John o Groats to his former home in Lands End. It was an understated beautiful film and I cried about 8 times, the last of which were floods of tears. Nice tears mind. Surprise of the year so far.

Any movie that brings tears to my eys is worth watching. It's a simple and harmless film with a wonderful soul at its heart. The story is told through and by virtue of a bus journey which is the vehicle for a source of sadness not revealed unit the final few scenes. The script is sparing and essential and there's no subplot unless you include the many encounters on the journey. Many of these encounters, even the briefest are full of poignancy and charm. A wonderful Feel-Good movie in its own very sweet way.

I never expected "The Last Bus" to be so touching. The story is told bit by bit through flashbacks, and gradually fills in the blanks. This enhances connection with viewers. Towards the final twenty minutes, I really feel for the old man, sand just can't stop the tears. The film is really beautiful, and portrays a plethora of deep emotions effectively.

I suppose for me the most amazing thing about this rather small movie is Timothy Spall, about 63 during filming, effectively playing a 90+ year old man with a number of physical issues. He is Tom, who at 15 managed to enlist and fight in the war in 1944. In 1950 he met the love of his life in Land's End and they were married. After a personal tragedy his wife's request was to "leave here, and go as far away as we can." So they settled in the far NE corner of Scotland, a community called John O'Groats, and lived their lives.

Then after his wife passed on in 2020, after almost 70 years there, he packs up and leaves everything behind to return by bus to Land's End. This movie is mainly about that trip, with his hand written journal to guide him he tries to recreate, backwards, his trip getting up there all those years ago. But of course not much goes as planned and unique adventures result. Along the way we the audience is treated to short flashbacks to fill in the story of his life.

This is a warm and simple movie, I found it on Amazon streaming, Spall's character makes it a very nice viewing.

A lovely premise, visually very easy on the eye with good use of colours, and an excellent performance by Spall, but ultimately an entirely unrealistic film which can turn the plot laughable at times. With sentimentality taking precident over realism, every element of social media - a seemingly needlessly integral component of the film - shoehorned into the film is far funnier than what was presumably intended.

The emotional manipulation of the audience lands well, spurred on by a heartwarming selection of characters helping the 'hero' along. Whilst some performances are reasonable, all of the acting ability was taken by Spall, with some really poor acting by other surrounding characters, written for bit parts that don't really reflect a recognisable person. It's a pleasant, predictable, easy watch, but difficult to get engrossed in with frequent moments poorly feigning realism.