In the northwest of Scotland, there stands a glacier-carved mountain called Suilven. Climbing it is not for the timid. But that's not a word that describes the unusual heroine determined to conquer Suilven in the film "Edie ."
Edith Moore — everyone calls her Edie — is no ordinary climber. She's 83 and has been sedentary for most of that time. That mountain, though, looms large in her mind in this quiet, unrushed and moving tale of age and will.
Director Simon Hunter spends as much time focusing on the crags of the glorious mountain as the ones on Edie's face, making it sometimes seem as if the Scottish Tourism Board and AARP teamed up to make a movie.
This image released by Music Box Films shows Kevin Guthrie, left, and Sheila Hancock in a scene from "Edie." (Music Box Films via AP)
Edie, lovingly portrayed by the brilliant Sheila Hancock, is a bitter and stubborn woman when we first meet her. She's been taking care of her ill and controlling husband for decades, nursing a long-held dream to climb Suilven. (Her last name is a clue: She wants more). His death liberates her, sending her to the Scottish Highlands, finally.
"I've lived a whole life and most of it I would change if I could," she says. "I've wasted so much time doing nothing. I can't give this up now."
No one she encounters thinks climbing the mountain is a good idea for a woman in her 80s who sometimes has a hard time opening car doors, except for the young co-owner of a local camping shop, Jonny (a soulful Kevin Guthrie). Edie is laughed at by the locals or considered an easy mark, but Jonny and Edie bond despite their age gap. He feels trapped in his life, too.
Together, they get Edie ready for the tough, three-day climb. There are setbacks — "Leave me alone. I'm geriatric," she jokes — and cool new gear to buy. (Edie is a little flummoxed by modern climbing jackets. "It's got holes in it," she complains. "Yeah," replies Jonny. "For your thumbs.")
As far as the plot goes, that's pretty much it: Older woman attempts to scale a mountain. Hancock fills in so much of the spare script with her quiet control, her expressive face and eyes. When she finally laughs, you feel it.
It might seem flimsy but there's so much here, including exploring ideas of fulfillment, regret and taking a chance. Plus, it's refreshing to have a film heroine with white hair and wrinkles. When was the last time we saw an 80-plus woman in a film in a bubble bath drinking wine?
The screenplay by Elizabeth O'Halloran (from a story by Edward Lynden-Bell) doesn't wrap up everything in a bow at the end — it actually just sort of ends, abruptly — and Debbie Wiseman's eager and overemotional score sometimes undermines the actors' more quiet work. But the uplifting "Edie" is worthy of your time, mostly thanks to Hancock and Scotland's natural beauty.
"Edie," a Music Box Films release, is unrated. Running time: 102 minutes. Three stars out of four.
Online: https://www.musicboxfilms.com/film/edie/
Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits
NEW YORK (AP) — Google said Sunday that it is expanding the shopping features in its AI chatbot by teaming up with Walmart, Shopify, Wayfair and other big retailers to turn the Gemini app into a virtual merchant as well as an assistant.
An instant checkout function will allow customers to make purchases from some businesses and through a range of payment providers without leaving the Gemini chat they used to find products, according to Walmart and Google.
The news was announced on the first day of the National Retail Federation’s annual convention in New York, which is expected to draw 40,000 attendees from retailer and technology companies this week. The role of artificial intelligence in e-commerce and its impact on consumer behavior are expected to dominate the three-day event.
“The transition from traditional web or app search to agent-led commerce represents the next great evolution in retail," John Furner, Walmart's incoming president and CEO, said in a joint statement with Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichaei.
Google’s new AI shopping feature works this way: if a customer asks what gear to get for a winter ski trip, for example, Gemini will return items from a participating retailers’ inventory.
In the case of Walmart, customers who link their Walmart and Gemini accounts will receive recommendations based on their past purchases, and any products they decide to buy via the chatbot could get combined with their existing Walmart or Sam's Club online shopping carts, according to the statement.
OpenAI and Walmart announced a similar deal in October, saying the partnership would allow ChatGPT members to use an instant checkout feature to shop for nearly everything available on Walmart’s website except for fresh food.
Google, OpenAI and Amazon all are racing to create tools that would allow for seamless AI-powered shopping by taking chatbot users from browsing to buying within the same program instead of having to go to a retailer’s website to complete a purchase. The race between OpenAI and Google has heated up in recent months.
Before the recent holiday shopping season, OpenAI launched an instant checkout feature within ChatGPT that allows users to buy products from select retailers and Etsy sellers without leaving the app.
San Francisco software company Salesforce estimated that AI influenced $272 billion, or 20%, of all global retail sales, in one way or another during the holiday shopping season.
Google said the AI-assisted shopping features in Gemini only would be available to U.S. users initially but that it planned to expand internationally in the coming months. Shoppers initially only can make payments through the cards linked to their Google accounts but soon will be able to make purchases using PayPal, the company said.
The aim of deploying chatbots in e-commerce is to make it easier for people to find what they’re looking for. Instead of entering search terms and keywords, they can type or use voice dictation, and refine their searches through a conversational back-and-forth. Tech companies also are rolling out “AI agents” that are a step beyond today's generative AI chatbots, though their ability to buy products on behalf of consumers is still limited.
“I’m under no false belief that there’s going to be a snap of the finger and then all of a sudden, agentic commerce is going to get everywhere," Mike Edmonds, PayPal's vice president of agentic commerce and commercial growth, said at Sunday's convention. But he cautioned retailers against taking a wait-and-see approach.
Shopify founder and CEO Tobi Lutke told a small group of reporters on Thursday that many people like the experience of “having a personal shopper who really gets them, understands them and can fit something in your budget," but Shopify also wants to make it doesn't “over automate."
“The person, the shopper, is in charge, and they can make the final call, but also we make it so that people find the perfect product for themselves,” he added.
Walmart's Furner said Sunday that the largest employer and retailer in the U.S. is trying to “close the gap between I want it and I have it” with the help of AI.
He and Pichaei announced from a stage at the National Retail Federation conference that Walmart plans to expand drone delivery service to 150 more stores in partnership with Wing, a division of Alphabet. The addition will bring Walmart's drone delivery locations with Wing to 270 by 2027, stretching from Los Angeles to Miami, the companies said.
FILE - Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai speaks at a Google I/O event in Mountain View, Calif., Tuesday, May 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
