500 Miles review: Morgan Matthews' new road-trip drama follows two brothers who sneak away from home and travel across two countries just to bring their fractured family back together, and it turns out to be one of the more heartfelt tear-jerkers of the year.
A Golden Memory In Dingle
The film opens with Finn (Roman Griffin Davis) looking back on the happiest days of his life, spent in the Irish town of Dingle. A flashback shows exactly what he means: a picture-perfect afternoon with his family, playing boules and building sandcastles on the beach with his grandparents. It's warm, sun-soaked and completely unguarded, the kind of memory a person clings to once life gets complicated.
A Family Coming Apart
Back in the present, that closeness has vanished. Finn and his younger brother Charlie (Dexter Sol Ansell) no longer have any real relationship with their grandfather (Bill Nighy, who says more with a glance than most actors manage with a monologue). Their grandmother has died, and their parents can't stop arguing at home. Rather than sit through it, the two boys sneak out and set off on an impulsive road trip from Sheffield all the way to the west coast of Ireland, determined to track down their grandfather and put the family back together.
Too Young For This Journey
It's not a simple trip. Finn and Charlie are far too young to be travelling alone, and Matthews frames their journey so the countryside itself becomes a character, with hills and mountains towering over the boys to remind viewers just how small and exposed they really are. Along the way, a stranger gives them an unexpected hand: Kait, played by a charming Maisie Williams, whom they meet busking on a train.
There's a wonderfully authentic relationship between Finn and Charlie at the heart of 500 Miles.
Two Young Leads Who Carry The Film
That bond between the brothers is really the engine of the movie. Davis is excellent as Finn, building on the breakthrough he made in Jojo Rabbit. Ansell, known for A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms, is just as good as Charlie, walking the line between larger-than-life and believable without ever tipping too far either way. Resting an entire film on child performances is always a gamble, but the brothers' relationship is written and played with enough warmth that it's likely to remind viewers of their own siblings.
A Reveal That Divides Opinion
Midway through, a reveal reshapes how everything that came before should be read, and how a viewer reacts to it will largely decide how they feel about the whole film. 500 Miles does not hold back on sentimentality; it leans into it fully, and viewers who don't respond well to heavy emotional beats may find themselves irritated. At times the film tips into being cloying and overwrought, not helped by a score that rarely lets up. Even so, thanks to the strength of its two young leads, it's difficult not to be moved by where their journey ends up.
