The Last Bus

Having recently lost his wife to cancer, "Tom" (Timothy Spall) decides to meticulously follow a route they took many years earlier from John O'Groats in Caithness all the way down the island of Great Britain to his hometown near Land's End in Cornwall - some 800-odd miles away. Armed only with a thick coat and a tiny suitcase, he determines to use his bus pass and along the way meets a wide variety of caring - and not so caring - individuals who engage with him, invite him into their lives, or just throw him off the bus for not having a ticket! As his journey continues he starts to attract the attention of local media but he's pretty ambivalent to any of that - he has just become a man with a mission. Along the way we are treated to some flashbacks of their early life - Ben Ewing and Natalie Mitson providing the acting - as we learn of their early lives, love and, of course, of their traumas and tribulations along the way. The story takes it's time and though never exactly dull, it's not especially lively either. Some of the events on his bus trip come across as a little overly contrived and Spall has precious little by way of dialogue to enliven this often rather plodding drama. At times, though, it presents a poignant opportunity for a man to reflect on a lifetime spent with the woman he loved and I'm sure will resonate widely with people dealing with loss and grief.