Back on Track

A feel good movie in the tone and tradition of BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL, THE BUCKET LIST or CALENDAR GIRLS.

Paul Averhoff was once a great marathon runner, a legend, and gold medal winner at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. Now well over 70, he moves out of his beloved home after his wife suffers several falls, and because his flight attendant daughter Birgit is too busy jetting around the world to help. In the nursing home, where Paul is left to choose between the singing group and handicraft classes, he can no longer avoid the decisive question: Was that it? No way! To ward off severe depression, he dons his old running shoes, and begins jogging in the nursing home park. The other nursing home residents think he has lost his mind, especially after he announces that he is training for the Berlin Marathon, which he intends to win. Paul convinces Margot to train him with a strict hand just like in the old days, and soon leaves the young caregiver Tobias in the dust, turning his skeptics into exhuberant fans. Recalling their hero from yesteryear, the "old fogeys" come back to life and cheer him on. The nursing home goes haywire. But then Margot dies, and Paul falls into deep mourning. Can he still fulfill the promise his wife wrested from him shortly before her death? That he would put aside his sad thoughts and keep running relentlessly toward the marathon, even without her?