The relationship between an actual location and how it is depicted in a film can be very complicated. The way glamorous or strange film characters walk a city’s streets or investigate its rural counterparts frequently has very little to do with what gives its real identity to a city or nation.
There are so many films to pick from, but my favourite must-see films are here to find inspiration to the UK for its landmark and tourist attractions.
- Wind (2014)
Based on the best-selling movie, Reese Witherspoon stars in this remarkable accurate tale. By hiking along the 1,100 mile-long Pacific Crest Trail in the USA, Cheryl Strayed, a girl in her 20s who recently lost her mum, tries to begin a new life. The miles walked provide Cheryl with the time and space to focus on her life, as with all travel with intent, and she starts to explore herself. Have handy tissues.
- The way (2020)
Tom, an eye doctor from London, flies out to France to retrieve his son’s remains after hearing the shocking news that his son was killed in a Pyrenees storm while walking the Camino de Santiago. Instead of returning home, Tom decides to embark on a historical pilgrimage, leaving his ashes along the path to remembering his son. Tom continues to understand his son’s love for travel over the weeks of walking and the characters he encounters along the way and, in exchange, learns more about himself and what he needs from life. Another tear-jerker this one.
- Holiday in the Wild (2019)
The dialogue is cliche, the storyline is repetitive, and Kristin Davis’s arsenal is thinly stretched, but if you love elephants, love an African safari. You’re looking for some quick viewing, and it’s worth watching this Netflix-produced picture. Filmed in South Africa, on her second honeymoon (after her husband walked out on her, the same day her son leaves on college), a Manhattanite flies alone to Zambia. It ends up working at an elephant sanctuary.
- The Inbetweeners (2014)
One of the funniest British comedies to grace our television is the TV series Inbetweeners. Two spin-off films have been made, but our favourite has to be when the misfit foursome head down. As Neil, Will, and Simon arrive in Australia to discover that Jay’s life in the ‘sex capital of the world’ of Sydney is not what he’s been telling, Will decides they have a chance to make a ‘real’ journey. Cue a romp around the singing of the camp-fire, accidental ideas, the disgrace of the water-slide, dolphin feeding, and a ride to the outback.
- Legend (2015)
This new film about Kray’s gangster twin twins, with Tom Hardy and Emily Browning in the lead roles, is set in London’s gritty 1960s crime scene, now, if those aren’t any of my favourite stuff in one movie mixed. Not murder, but Tom Hardy, London, and the 1960s (yummy and frightening in a double role). This is just the movie for you if you’re into swing music, lots of eyeliner, and heavy Hackney accents.