Before I ever picked up a rucksack or walked the Pennines, I saw a film that changed everything. “Edie” didn’t just inspire me to walk—it reminded me I still had time to change my life.

There are films that entertain you, and there are films that somehow reach right into your chest and quietly rearrange something. For me, Edie was one of those films.

It wasn’t just the scenery (although it was breathtaking), or the slow, tender storytelling. It was the truth of it—the quiet power of a woman deciding, late in life, to do the thing she’d always dreamed of. To walk into the wild, on her own terms, while she still could. That hit me hard.

I first watched Edie just before I began walking the Pennines. Then I watched it again that same week. Something in it had cracked me open. The story itself isn’t based on a true event, but the emotions are all real. Director Simon Hunter and writer Elizabeth O’Halloran were inspired by the kind of regrets many people carry—the dreams they shelved, the lives they lived for others instead of themselves.

Sheila Hancock, who plays Edie, made her feel like someone you might meet in a local café. Not extraordinary, just real. A woman of 83, widowed and finally asking herself: “What if I could still do this one thing? What if my life isn’t over yet?“

When I watched her, I saw myself.

Edie had spent a lifetime being who her husband wanted her to be. She married, had children, kept house, and quietly gave up her dreams. When I saw her at the start of that film, I was staring down the same barrel. I was sliding into my 40s, deeply unhappy, and could already see the next 40 years of my life laid out like a path I didn’t want to follow. And suddenly I realised: I didn’t want to be 83 before my life could begin.

That film reminded me that it’s never too late—but also that waiting might cost more than we think.

“I didn’t want to be 83 before my life could truly begin”

So I started walking. One foot in front of the other. On trails, in the rain, with aching legs and a growing sense of coming back to myself. That was the beginning.

That film reminded me it’s never too late—but it also made me question the idea that we always have time. I grew up hearing, “There’s time for that later,” but is there really? I’d spent the last 24 years raising kids, working every hour I could, trying to keep a safe home. And somehow, those years flew by. Now I was sliding into my 40s, carrying pain, exhaustion, and poor health. The truth is, we don’t have unlimited time. We only have now.

If you have ever wanted to watch a film that would good you food for thought, this is in my list of top 10.

💬 Let’s talk in the comments…

• Have you ever seen a film that made you stop and rethink your life?