A look at how love later in life can still develop and that you should never give up hope of being able to love someone again. Dave and Fern get to know one another whilst walking the dog, twenty three times.
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23 Walks is a sweet enough film and while I am not in the target audience (yet, I mean we will all get to this age eventually). Looking at love for a second time and being in your 60s with plenty of upsetting life events having happened before that. Does this mean that sometimes you just need someone new to come along and show you that you still have a lot of life left to live?
I cannot therefore say that I loved the film or anything like that but it is watchable and that is a positive. It attempts to split a few different themes all into the one story, which make parts totally tragic when I would have preferred it to be a lot more positive. I know that could just mean its being realistic but it felt like the trauma was forced to make people feel sad, rather than focusing on the happy side.
I felt as though Fern's reaction to finding out that Dave's wife was still alive was very over the top for 2020, like surely now we know a lot more about different things to realise that at times like that that person pretty much dies twice. The first when they no longer recognise family members and the second when they actually pass way. I just felt she was a little bit pathetic and over the top with it, as surely empathy towards that is a lot better now than it has ever been? I would certainly hope so anyway. I didn't really want to mention the sex scene, but I feel I need to warn people about it. Mainly because it's very awkward and just sorta thrown in, without actually adding anything of substance.
Dave Johns while most well known for his starring role in I, Daniel Blake by trade is a comedian. A very funny one at that, I have been lucky enough to see two different stand up shows that he has done in Newcastle. However, it was extremely disappointing that more of that natural humour he possesses was not transferred onto screen and given to his character I feel it would have added so much more to the film. Alison Steadman worked well enough with Johns and I feel this was probably more a missed opportunity rather than anything really bad. You never know though as I get older I might just appreciate this one a little bit more?