Walk With Me Review (EIFF 2025)
A single diagnosis can change every aspect of your life forever. That one moment can ripple and influence not only your own life but also the lives of those around you in ways beyond imagination. While many of us may not have experienced such a moment ourselves, it is, like many things, inevitable. We will all face this unique and frightening moment at some point. Walk With Me explores this moment through the perspectives of Charlie Hess and his wife Heidi Levitt. Charlie is diagnosed with Early-Onset Alzheimer’s disease, and over four years, we witness how this single moment has impacted both Charlie and Heidi’s lives.
For Charlie, he gradually begins to accept that this is his new reality and that his life will never quite be the same. This is made clear early on when Charlie talks about his career as a magazine design director and how everything used to come instinctively. However, after one mistake, he struggles with tasks that were once very simple and are no longer. Over the four years, we see how quickly even Early-Onset Alzheimer’s can alter someone’s life. Watching him struggle to spell simple words or remember a speech is distressing and illustrates how rapidly this condition can take over a person’s life.
Heidi, following the diagnosis, starts contacting every doctor she can find to discover what options might help Charlie and to see if Alzheimer’s can be detected early. When doctors diagnose Alzheimer’s early, it’s often already too late, as the brain has begun to deteriorate. Heidi does her best to ensure Charlie enjoys a good quality of life despite his diagnosis, but it also reveals how painful it can be to be a caregiver. Charlie sometimes lashes out for seemingly no reason and finds it difficult to engage in activities that might help him, often because he’s too tired or having a bad day.
Even amid sadness, Walk With Me offers a genuine sense of warmth. Charlie and Heidi are truly a lovable duo, and it’s hard not to fall in love with them and wish them well despite this life-altering news. As a doctor tells Charlie, he will take a path many of us will never walk, but Heidi must walk it with him. Watching how they navigate this journey is the film’s greatest strength and emotional core. The film is also gorgeously presented perfectly, using different effects in the footage to show that wild Charlie’s mind might fade this film will live on forever.
Walk With Me may not revolutionise or reshape your view of Alzheimer’s, but it tells a beautiful story of two wonderful people facing this terrible diagnosis. You will become endeared to Charlie and Heidi, and although the road ahead is uncertain, you hope for the best and that they cherish every moment they share.
★★★ 1/2
Playing as part of the 2025 Edinburgh International Film Festival on August 17th and 18th / Charlie Hess, Heidi Levitt / Dir: Heidi Levitt / PG
