FINDING YOUR FEET: Pensioner Dramedy Is Surprisingly Moving

It’s usually The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel that gets the blame/credit for the rise of films pitched squarely at what we’ll politely call an “older audience”. John Madden’s 2011 movie – about a group of Brits, including Dame Judi Dench, retiring to India – took $134m (£96m) worldwide, on a budget of a mere $10m (£7m), and inspired not just a successful sequel, but a whole new sub-genre of similarly pensioner-friendly fare.

Since then, we’ve had Quartet, The Hundred Foot Journey, Hampstead, Mr Morgan’s Last Love, The Time Of Their Lives, The Love Punch, Golden Years… I could go on. Finding Your Feet could be accused of being just another cynical bid to grab some of that “grey pound/dollar/euro” action but is, nevertheless, a cut above a lot of those other, rather mediocre, movies. In fact, it’s a very likeable – and surprisingly moving – film.

Butting heads

Imelda Staunton plays the snooty Sandra, married to Mike (John Sessions), a high-ranking police chief, and about to become a ‘Lady’, thanks to her husband’s place on the Queen’s honours list. However, her perfect life goes spinning off the rails when she discovers he has been having an affair with Pamela (Josie Lawrence), her best friend. Infuriated and humiliated, Sandra decamps to estranged sister Bif’s (Celia Imrie) London council flat and soon finds herself a member of an over-60s dance class. She also butts heads with Charlie (Timothy Spall), a salt-of-the-earth handyman, who lives on a barge and is no fan of her superior manner. Hmm, I wonder if, over the course of the movie, Sandra and Bif will repair their broken relationship, and romance will blossom between Sandra and Charlie?

It would be easy to suggest the film couldn’t go wrong with a cast as strong as Imrie, Staunton, Spall, and Sessions – plus Joanna Lumley on hand in an extended cameo to supply one-liners and the odd bit of exposition – but that isn’t the case. In the wrong hands, this could be horribly twee. Occasionally, you see that other film – with its cloying Richard Curtis-isms – heave into view: a clumsy digression in Rome, old people behaving badly as they smoke weed, get arrested, and dance in a Christmas flash mob.

Completely overwhelmed

On the whole, though, Richard Loncraine’s (Wimbledon) movie is more interested in its characters than its flimsy plot, whilst exploring the effect old age and changed circumstances have had or are having on them. Saggy boobs, loss of libido, being traded in for a “younger model”, aches, pains, illness and death are staples of this type of caper, but there’s a bit more honesty here, a refusal to patronize its audience. Under the “living life to the full” lessons and “it’s never too late to change course” homilies, there’s genuine tragedy. The first death occurs in the first half-hour and it isn’t the last – old age can be a time when you try new things if you’re bold enough, but it can also be bloody brutal, and Finding Your Feet makes that all too clear.

In perhaps the film’s most powerful scene, widower Ted (David Hayman) has to leave in the middle of the dance class after he hears a song – Peter Sarstedt‘s “Where Do You Go To My Lovely” – that reminds him of his late wife. He breaks down in the corridor outside as grief completely overwhelms him. This would be tough to watch in a Ken Loach picture, but in a relatively light-hearted romantic dramedy, it’s a veritable gut punch.

Sad and ridiculous

The performances are exemplary – obviously. Staunton’s Sandra has sold her soul for comfort and (seeming) certainty. With her big house and posh friends, she’s become detached from reality and is profoundly uncomfortable in her own skin, at one point making something as routine as the hokey cokey appear as much fun as undergoing a triple heart bypass. It’s a tricky role because Sandra isn’t especially sympathetic, even after we discover her husband’s betrayal.

Staunton – Oscar nominated for her titular role in Mike Leigh’s superb Vera Drake in 2004 – rises to the occasion, making her a sad and slightly ridiculous figure rather than a truly awful one. As the title implies, fish-out-of-water Sandra isn’t just having to find her feet in the dance class, but in her new life too. Relearning how to be a half-decent human being takes time and effort.

Scared of dying

Imrie and Staunton enjoy great chemistry and you have no problem believing they are sisters. If anything, the former has the most difficult job of all. Her character Bif is something of a cliché – a bohemian, ban-the-bomb lefty who lives in a cluttered flat, seemingly without a care in the world. Underrated Imrie (who also featured in the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel films) turns in an incredibly warm performance and delivers the movie’s pivotal line: “It’s one thing being scared of dying, Sandra, it’s a whole different matter being scared of living.” As good as Spall is, Finding Your Feet belongs entirely to its women.

That said, I’ve always thought the mark of a great actor was not how they portrayed grand, historically important figures, but how they approached smaller, far more ordinary roles. Spall – who has played Winston Churchill, Ian Paisley, and JMW Turner in recent times – essays Charlie with a simple, uncomplicated decency. He isn’t a mover or a shaker, a charismatic cheeky chappie, or aging lothario. He’s a regular bloke trying to scratch a living, while going through a difficult time with his sick wife. He’s kind and nice. That’s it, and it’s enough.

Shallow and awful

There are some interesting class politics at work here too. The rich and well-to-do are mostly shown as shallow and awful, the poor perhaps romanticised a little too much (although the fact the film is set on a council estate not overrun by drugs and crime is refreshing in itself). As Bif puts it, while talking to Charlie about her sister: “She married a tosser and is now obsessed with keeping up with other tossers”. Finding Your Feet is hardly I, Daniel Blake, but even its suggestion there might be more to life than accruing wealth and big houses feels pointedly out of step with austerity-blighted, get-rich-quick, modern Britain.

Director Loncraine imbues his film with genuine energy, and even though some of the plot turns come a bit out of left-field (“We’ve been invited to a festival of dance in Rome – all expenses paid!”), at least it gives proceedings real forward motion. Fittingly, Finding Your Feet doesn’t stand still for a minute; even the talky, emotional scenes are dealt with briskly, yet effectively. I’ve seen plenty of action movies that could learn a thing or two from its pacing.

In conclusion: Finding Your Feet

The film balances comedy and drama very nicely – it’s charming, funny, and earns every one of its big emotional beats. You know how it’s all going to end up, but are more than happy to go along for the ride. Finding Your Feet is, however, so perfectly machine-tooled to appeal to British pensioners, I half-expected a cameo from Mary Berry and a scene in which the characters discussed their unwavering support for Brexit. If you can cope with that, you’ll find much to enjoy here.

Which film features the best portrayal of old age? Amour, Harold And Maude, or something else? Let us know in the comments below…

Finding Your Feet is in UK cinemas now. You’ll find international release dates here.