You don’t often come across 83-year-old hiker protagonists at the movies. The latest from Music Box Films, however, centers around recently widowed Edie, who spent the majority of her life caring for others: her late, controlling husband, George, who suffered a blood clot and did not walk or talk for the last three decades of his life, and her daughter, Nancy. 

The terrible sorrow of a loveless marriage has left Edie, brilliantly portrayed by English actress Sheila Hancock, bitter and gruff. Standing in the driving rain outside her newly sold home, Edie tries to explain a lifetime of unhappiness to her indignant daughter: “I looked after him and you. I did my duty . . . but that is all I did, nothing else! Don’t you understand?” 

After Edie resigns herself to old age in a retirement home, she packs up her house. Sorting through old memories, she comes across a postcard depicting Mt. Suilven, a 2,398-foot peak rising from the moorland, bogs, and lochans of the Scottish Highlands. She instinctively tosses the postcard into her fireplace—yet another painful reminder of the life she did not lead (when Edie was married, her father planned a climbing adventure for himself and Edie in the Highlands; George made her stay home)—but in a rare moment of hesitation, she snatches the postcard back from the flames. The next day, Edie embarks on a journey from England to Scotland, her destination the imposing summit of Mt. Suilven. 

Directed by Simon Hunter, Edie is refreshing not because it lacks predictability but because it tells a story that is often overlooked. It focuses on the emotional burden of serving as a lifelong caretaker—a responsibility often shouldered by women. And of course, it deftly depicts the intertwined nature of epic physical and deep emotional journeys. 

Older females in film and television are typically relegated to supporting roles (if they appear at all). Edie, however, is rife with footage of a woman in her eighties drinking wine in a bubble bath, sipping whiskey in an Irish bar—dressed elegantly in a bright-red dress and lipstick—and of course, scaling a mountain. 

Edie prepares for her ascent of Mt. Suilven with the help of a young guide and camp shop owner, Jonny, played by Kevin Guthrie. The pair initially clash—Jonny can’t seem to do anything right in Edie’s eyes—but unsurprisingly, an “unlikely” friendship emerges. The scenes of Jonny luring Edie into laughter are charming, even if the arch of their friendship would have benefited from a deeper exploration of Jonny’s character.

Standing at the base of Mt. Suilven on the day of her climb, Edie tells Jonny, “I have made a decision. I am going up on my own.” As our heroine begins her hike, the camera zooms out, and Edie shrinks to a small blue dot in a vast expanse of brown grass. Mt. Sulivan looms imposingly at the edge of the frame, and the sheer enormity of Edie’s task becomes clear.

Perhaps what’s most extraordinary about this film is the fact that Edie’s beautifully shot trek through the Scottish Highlands, including her difficult ascent, is not the product of mere camera tricks—Hancock, now 86, really did climb the mountain. The scenes of Edie reaching summit, her face a mixture of awe and exhaustion, are all the more compelling because they are authentic. 

The rare beauty of an octogenarian woman summiting a mountain in the windswept Scottish Highlands is worth seeing. Edie may not surprise, but it does inspire.  

*Edie will be available on DVD and on-demand—via Amazon, AppleTV, FandangoNow, GooglePlay, Vudu, YouTube, and all cable VOD platforms—on December 3.