Review of I Know Where I'm Going (2009) by Padraig W — 25 Nov 2007

Love of place and history is a recurrent theme in Michael Powell's films, and this is a prime example. This film is utterly charming. The conceit is that Wendy Hiller is travelling to a remote Scottish isle to be married.

She cannot get across the last stretch of water, and there she falls in love with the place and a local laird. This is merely a peg to hang the rest of the movie on. This is all about Scottish culture and history and representing it in as romantic and idealised a vision as possible.

The burgeoning romance of the characters is symptomatic. Powell is really saying that anyone with an open heart would love this life and these people. The sincerity of the expression is compounded by the impressive technique and arresting compositions.

Wendy Hiller is superb in the role of the lady who "knows where she's going". Can anyone looking at her striking appearance not believe that she was destined to remain in those wild and open highlands? The film is a little twee at times, and it is a film that is very much of its time.

However, that sense of being old-fashioned is endearing and totally in keeping with the theme of this warm movie experience.