Despite being impeccably acted, sincerely intended and often beautifully shot, there is something basically unsatisfying in this quirky/sad movie, adapted by Rachel Joyce from her own Booker-longlisted novel; it is undermined by issues of tone and plausibility connected with that word “unlikely” in the title. The film presents partly as a sentimental oldie heartwarmer, but also asks us to believe in it as something more serious and even tragic: an emotional investment made harder by the unreality of what we’re seeing.
Jim Broadbent and Penelope Wilton play Harold and Maureen, a retired couple living a life of quiet boredom and desperation in Devon. Out of the blue, Harold gets a letter saying that an old work colleague of his is now in a cancer hospice in Berwick-upon-Tweed. This is Queenie, played all-too-briefly in flashback by Linda Bassett, and Maureen looks far from pleased to hear her name.
