‘500 Miles’ review: Bill Nighy and Maisie Williams star in mawkish Irish drama

Dir: Morgan Matthews. UK, Ireland. 2026. 101mins

The happiest moments in the lives of teenager Finn (Roman Griffin Davis) and his younger brother Charlie (Dexter Sol Ansell) were the holidays spent with their grandparents in Dingle, on the West Coast of Ireland. So when their parents’ divorce threatens to split the family, Finn runs away from his Sheffield home and, with his garrulous little brother in tow, sets out to reconnect with his now-estranged grandfather John (Bill Nighy). 

The photogenically craggy coastline around Dingle gets a starring role

Adapted from the novel Charlie and Me: 421 Miles From Home by Mark Lowery, the film is a tricky one to position: with its kid protagonists and naïve plotting, it would seem to be targeted at younger audiences. But a mawkish final act swerve into tearjerking territory might be a turn off for the family market. 

Director Morgan Matthews, whose work includes documentaries such as Williams, about the Formula One dynasty, and the BAFTA and Sheffield Audience-prize-winning The Fallen, has previous experience of helming child-friendly dramas. He directed the maths olympiad crowdpleaser A Brilliant Young Mind (aka X+Y) which picked up prizes in Tallinn among others; subsequent work includes The Railway Children Return, a nostalgic riff on the beloved British classic. Without that IP familiarity, however, 500 Miles may struggle to match the audience engagement and box office numbers of its predecessors.

The film’s premiere at the Dublin International Film Festival is a fitting launch pad for a picture which, if nothing else, is a big-hearted love letter to Ireland in general, and to the West Coast in particular. The wide aspect ratio of the cinematography really comes into its own in the latter part of the story, in which the photogenically craggy coastline around Dingle gets a starring role along with the famous local dolphin, Fungie. That said, the picture does lean a little heavily into Irish cultural cliches at times. A pint of Guinness is lovingly and reverentially photographed; an entire pub full of punters breaks into a spontaneous jig, accompanied by the obligatory fiddle and flute.

We are introduced to the family dynamics through a voice-over provided by Finn. He describes his younger brother’s tricky start in life – he was born prematurely and spent much of his early childhood in and out of hospital. But pint-sized bundle of mischief Charlie, larger than life in all ways except height, is not one to let his health wobbles get in the way of the craic.

It’s a bit of a thankless role for Ansell, the young actor tasked with bringing the exhaustingly chatty and gratingly chipper Charlie to life. There’s a tricky balance between playing a big personality and delivering an oversized performance that teeters on the brink of overacting – it would be a challenge for an experienced adult performer, let alone a youngster at the beginning of their career. 

Having set the scene with flashbacks to idyllic holidays in Dingle, the film reveals an unexplained schism between the boy’s parents and their grandfather, with their mother (Clare Dunne) forcefully reminding him that he is no longer permitted to call them. But Finn misses his grandfather and when he overhears his parents discussing separation and custody of the kids, he takes drastic action. But the 500-mile journey from Sheffield to Dingle is not cheap, so Charlie is forced to stow away for part of it in the luggage compartment of a coach.

Along the way, they meet ukulele-mangling street busker Kait (Maisie Williams), who steps in to help when Finn manages to leave his kid brother on a coach. Music choices are questionable across the board, with a score consisting mainly of folk-infused sentimental noodling and Williams’ ukulele version of Talking Heads’ ’Road To Nowhere’ a notable low.