Downhill, film review: Quintessentially British movie combines comedy with bleak observations

(15) James Rouse, 98 mins. Starring: Richard Lumsden, Karl Theobald, Ned Dennehy, Jeremy Swift

Four middle-aged friends set out to re-create Alfred Wainwright’s coast-to-coast walk in 'Downhill'

Four middle-aged friends set out to re-create Alfred Wainwright's coast-to-coast walk from St Bees to Robin Hood's Bay.

They start off in high enough spirits but their anxieties about money, sex, mortality and map reading become increasingly evident. The weather worsens. The friends' drunken antics cease seeming funny.

Torben Betts' screenplay for this engaging, quintessentially British road/rambling movie combines knockabout comedy with surprisingly bleak observations about the way the men's lives have all veered off course.