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| THE WAY |
Movie
review by Neil Sadler
Starring:
Martin Sheen, Emilio Estevez, James Nesbitt, Deborah
Kara Unger
Director: Emilio Estevez
More details
THE WAY tells the
story of Tom played by director and writer Emilio Estevez’s father
Martin Sheen. When his estranged son dies while walking the Camino
de Santiago, a Christian pilgrimage route in Spain, Tom goes to
collect the ashes but ends up walking the route himself and
scattering the ashes as he walks.
Collecting a small band of people that follow him on the route, Tom
uses the journey to reflect on his own life and his relationship
with his son and the world.
THE WAY is the story of a pilgrimage, something which is quite alien
to many Christian’s nowadays but was quite a common experience for
Christians in previous centuries and is still very common in other
faiths, notably Islam where the Haj or pilgrimage to Mecca is one of
the 7 pillars of wisdom. How
you react to THE WAY will very much be coloured by how you feel
about pilgrimages, because the journey that Tom takes, is
traditionally that of the pilgrim. By physically moving along the
way, he challenges not only his body but his beliefs and how that he
interacts with the world around him.
As he moves through the journey, he is scattering his sons ashes but
also learning more about him and his attitude to life. The
relationships he makes as he walks are initially quite frosty. Joost
is never really invited to walk with Tom but follows him almost like
a puppy. Yorick den Wageningen is extremely likeable as Joost, even
if he does come across as a bit of a stereo typical Dutchman.
Jack and Sarah, the other pilgrims that join Tom are less likeable
initially but as the journey mellows them all and we learn snippets
about their life, we warm to them in the same way the group learn to
warm to each other. The best example of this is when the group get
to spend a night in a smart hotel after weeks of sleeping in cheap
hostels and on roadsides. Initially revelling in the luxury, they
soon miss the company of one another and gradually all drift from
their separate rooms into Tom’s room.
This is a slow and gentle tale that goes quite rightly at a walking
pace. Obviously deeply felt, it is a very Christian tale. No
surprise then that this is from Mel Gibson’s production company,
Icon. Some people may
struggle with the whole concept of the pilgrimage and what it can
teach a modern audience but the simple performances, stark but often
beautiful landscapes and surprisingly moving but unsentimental final
scenes make this a mellow but rewarding antidote to blockbuster and
rom-com overload.
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