7/10
Everyone has their own, personal reason for choosing to walk
the real 500 mile Camino de Santiago.
This is a trail which begins in France, winds its way through the French
Pyrenees, across northern Spain’s Basque region, and ends in Galicia at the
Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.
Legend says St. James is buried here.
Every year, thousands of ‘pilgrims’ make this arduous trek which can
take months to accomplish. However, don’t
let the word pilgrim fool you; many people undertake this quest for
non-religious reasons.
In fact, four such folk are the main characters in The
Way. Tom (Martin Sheen) is a native Californian eye doctor who spends as much
time on the links as he does at the office.
He receives an unexpected phone call from a French policeman informing him
his son Daniel (Emilio Estevez) died
in southern France in a major storm. Tom
flies out to France to collect his body and learns about the pilgrimage Daniel
was just starting out on.
Tom and Daniel did not have the best parting one would like
to have the last time you are going to see your son. Tom thought Daniel was wasting his life on
these silly adventures while Daniel responded with the platitude, “You don’t
choose your life, you experience it.” In
a moment of remorse and homage, Tom decides to walk the 500 miles for Daniel
with his cremated remains spreading his ashes along the way. Quickly, he is joined by fellow pilgrims each
with their own reasons for taking a few months out of their lives to backpack
across Spain.
There is the Dutchman Joost (Yorick van Wageningen) who is walking the trail to lose weight for
his brother’s wedding. Sarah (Deborah Kara Unger) is a chain smoking
Canadian who vows to drop the habit once she reaches the cathedral and Jack (James Nesbitt) is an Irishman convinced
the trail will finally crack his writer’s block. Initially, Tom does not particularly want
their company because he is suffering from some severe guilt and remorse about
Daniel. This leads to the film’s low
point of a drunken rage against pilgrims and his walking mates. Fortunately, once this ridiculous and
needless scene is over, the rest of The Way is a very enjoyable movie to
watch.
The Way was shot with only available light, sunlight during the
day and candles and fire at night which lends it a great deal of
authenticity. Other than the main
characters, everyone else on screen are actual pilgrims walking the trail to
the cathedral. There is a scene later on
with real Roma (Gypsies). Since the
Camino de Santiago means a great deal to many people, especially those in
northern Spain, you can really see how writer/director Emilio Estevez took his
time to do this right.
It is refreshing to see Emilio pop his head up once again
for some work. I last saw him when he
directed 2006’s Bobby and since then it appears he has only directed a couple
episodes of Numb3rs. Perhaps he is
always waiting for some real inspiration to use as his next project. He mentioned The Way came about from
his father and his son’s experience on the trail. I wonder if the character Jack is a model for
Emilio since the first draft of this screenplay took six months to write. Furthermore, it is about time Martin Sheen
showed up in a good movie again.
Recently, he has had some bit parts in throw away movies such as Love
Happens and Imagine That and hasn’t truly had quality work since The
Departed.
The Way won’t win any awards; however, it is so positive and
perhaps intentionally persuasive that I bet every person in the audience thought
about how they could find a few months to take off and hike that distance. I had no idea that such a place as the Camino
de Santiago existed before watching The Way which I suspect is a big
reason why Emilio Estevez took the time to write and direct this film. He wants the rest of us to know about it as
well.
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