One doesn't readily associate Robert Redford with non-serious films, and here he's given as his foil a bumbling, grizzled, overweight, out-of-condition character in the old friend shape of Nick Nolte, as they together hike the over 2,000 miles of the Appalachian Trail. They strike sparks off each other, alternately grumbling and bickering, only having come together because the Redford character's (travel writer, Bill Bryson) wife, played by Emma Thompson - seen only in the opening scenes (with brief glimpse also at very end) - didn't want Bryson to go off alone on this madcap idea. Homely Bryson leaves his wife and three children to go on this personal expedition.
I've always liked Nick Nolte though haven't seen him on screen for some years. Although I knew that he'd be the main supporting star here, he's so bulked up (just for this film or in real life?) that had I not known I might not have recognised him.
It's an episodic film, the pair having to deal with events thrown up by the oddball, sometimes dotty, characters they meet on the way - including, briefly, Mary Steenburgen as a flighty hostel owner. Many of the episodes seem to fizzle out without any resolution with a strange cumulative effect, which is much the same as life, I suppose.
Director Ken Kwapin deals with the thin material capably enough, giving us the ravishing, breathtaking scenic shots we expected.
I've read a few Bill Bryson books, though it did take me a little time to get onto his wavelength. I am a fan, most recently getting through his eminently readable 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' - an astonishingly comprehensive expose of sciences for lay people like me - and next is his 1994 'Made in America' in my pile of books yet to read.
The film wiled away a couple of hours pleasantly enough. Nothing to go overboard for, but certainly agreeable......................6.
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