The Last Bus

Tom has just lost his wife. Fifty years ago the two of them moved to a town in the far north of Scotland; now Tom is going back. No plane, no train; he will use the free bus pass given to pensioners. From the top of the country to the bottom, route by route, bus by bus. He carries his wife's ashes with him. On the way he meets drivers, passengers and young people; some help him and some do not see him at all. Somebody films him on a phone and shares it, and without knowing it the old man becomes recognised. Gillies MacKinnon directs. Timothy Spall plays Tom and Phyllis Logan plays his wife Mary. It is a British production. Timothy Spall plays a man far older than himself and is aged with makeup. The narrative moves in flashbacks through the journey; the couple's youth and why they went north open slowly. The matter it treats is a promise; the journey is made in order to keep one. The film shows Britain through a bus window and the landscape holds an important place in the story. The narrative builds small episodes from the people met along the way and some of them stay as cliches. The social media line is added later and does not quite fit. The film carries the grief quietly and stages no big scene. The ending completes the journey. Its limit is predictability; the narrative is slow, the emotional steering plain, and the ending expected. Who it is for: viewers who like quiet road films and drama built on performance. Who it is not for: it is slow, sorrowful, and the ending emotional.