A remarkable story: The Salt Path reviewed

The Salt Path is an adaptation of the best-selling book by Raynor Winn. It tells the true story of how she and her husband, Moth, lost their home and lost all their money. At one point they go to a bank to withdraw all their funds: £1.38. And if that wasn’t bad enough he’s then diagnosed with an incurable neurodegenerative disease. So what do they decide to do? They decide to embark on a 630-mile walk along the South West Coast Path. Isn’t that what any of us would do, given the circumstances? It is a remarkable story and while this may well frustrate those who like a juicy plot arc – does working out if you can stretch to a bag of chips count as plot? – it stars Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs who make it rather glorious.

The screenplay is by Rebecca Lenkiewicz and it’s directed by the acclaimed theatre director Marianne Elliott. We begin with Rayner and Moth in lashing rain seeking to save their flimsy tent from washing away in the middle of the night and then we’re flashing back to the beginning. That is when they are hiding out in their home as bailiffs thump at the door. They lose everything when an investment with a friend goes bad and a court rules they are responsible for the debt. (It never gets more specific than this. What was this investment? What were they hoping for when they put their money in? We never know.) They had been comfortably off with a small, beloved farm and holiday lets. All gone, and now here we are, in the doctor’s office, as Moth is given his diagnosis (corticobasal degeneration), told that there is no treatment and that he must rest as much as possible (Ha!).