Linney, Ifans Star in Parkinson's Drama 'Onwards' — SkimNews
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- "Onwards and Sideways" — directed by John Madden — had its world premiere as a Toronto gala screening and opens in UK theaters November 6, starring Laura Linney and Rhys Ifans as two strangers who bond over a shared Parkinson's diagnosis in rural England.
- Paul Mayhew-Archer, the veteran "Vicar of Dibley" TV comedy writer and Parkinson's activist, penned his first feature screenplay from his own experience with the disease.
- Ifans plays widowed elementary school teacher Tony Evans, opposite Linney's American expat piano teacher Emma; Monica Dolan co-stars as Tony's overbearing sister Liz and Rory Kinnear as his plainspoken neurologist.
- Linney's character grapples with a gambling addiction that the film reveals is enabled by certain Parkinson's medications — a candid detail the reviewer flags as distinguishing the drama from more generic illness films.
- Thomas Newman composed the score, which the reviewer calls "soaring" but "somewhat over-active" around the film's skydive climax that fulfills an earlier dream.
- Despite its high-profile cast, the review notes the BBC-backed film carries "high-end TV" qualities — programmatic writing and a blandly bright, utilitarian mise-en-scène — though Madden's facility with actors and heart-forward storytelling carry it through.
Why it matters: Backed by the BBC and opening in UK theaters November 6, "Onwards and Sideways" courts an "under-served gray-pound audience" Hollywood rarely targets, while Mayhew-Archer's personal-experience screenplay brings specificity — including Linney's gambling-addiction arc enabled by Parkinson's medication — that more generic illness films lack.
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