This British (very) light comedy, is a conventional modern Pilgrims Progress that attempts to do for the Offa's Dyke long-distance walking path what "Shirley Valentine" did for Greece and "Educating Rita" did for the Open University.
The cluster of UK TV-hits acting talent did their best with the script, but ultimately were unable to get past the contemporary clichés and cardboard characterisations. Since the star was meant to be the landscape and a flavour of how nice it is to walk through the English/Welsh Countryside, the director should have gone the whole hog and treated us to the best spectacle the location has to offer. However, the shots are fine enough, authentic and evocative, and that's what kept me awake late at night watching it right through to the end. And the message of the story - that I have turned into a TV/computer couch-potato, managed to hit home.
Just for the record, Offa's Dyke was the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of the Berlin Wall, (or, to be more up to date, the Palestine Wall.) It is 180 miles long, and built by Offa, King of Mercia, in the latter half of the 8th century to separate the Welsh from the English. Today it winds through English and Welsh Counties, thus one gets a bit of both, which the film conveys.
I wanted to give it 5.5 heading for 6 by my scoring method, but for some reason I settled on 5, probably through feeling embarrassed for the competent team of actors, and the UK comedy industry as a whole.
The cluster of UK TV-hits acting talent did their best with the script, but ultimately were unable to get past the contemporary clichés and cardboard characterisations. Since the star was meant to be the landscape and a flavour of how nice it is to walk through the English/Welsh Countryside, the director should have gone the whole hog and treated us to the best spectacle the location has to offer. However, the shots are fine enough, authentic and evocative, and that's what kept me awake late at night watching it right through to the end. And the message of the story - that I have turned into a TV/computer couch-potato, managed to hit home.
Just for the record, Offa's Dyke was the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of the Berlin Wall, (or, to be more up to date, the Palestine Wall.) It is 180 miles long, and built by Offa, King of Mercia, in the latter half of the 8th century to separate the Welsh from the English. Today it winds through English and Welsh Counties, thus one gets a bit of both, which the film conveys.
I wanted to give it 5.5 heading for 6 by my scoring method, but for some reason I settled on 5, probably through feeling embarrassed for the competent team of actors, and the UK comedy industry as a whole.