Film Reviews

The Way

• Rating:
• Director: Emilio Estevez
• Starring: Deborah Kara Unger
• Details: US / 128mins (12A).

A step up from his disappointingly messy Bobby, Emilio Estevez returns with this sentimental journey of one man's mission to posthumously bond with his only son. If I was to describe the movie in one word, that word would be 'nice'. On a meaner day, however, that could be swapped for 'dull', as it takes a skilled filmmaker to deliver a movie about a man walking.
Tom (Sheen) travels to the south of France to identify the body of his only son Daniel (Estevez) who was tragically killed on the first day of El Camino De Santiago - a gruelling 880km trek from the French Pyrenees to Santiago, Spain. Estranged from his son because he didn't agree with his life choices (like giving up a career to explore Europe), Tom endeavours to complete the pilgrimage in his son's honour, scatter his ashes at various points, and hopefully connect with him along the way. During the journey, Tom happens across bitter Canadians (Unger), happy-go-lucky Dutch (Yorick Van Wageningen) and frustrated Irish writers (Nesbitt).
The Way is littered with moments that only happen in movies: everyone Tom meets on his walk are friendly, speak English and are of stereotypical fair (the writer suffers from writer's block; the Dutch guy smokes a lot of grass; the bitter one will get in touch with her anger). The Way, too, can be accused of being only Travel Porn as Sheen stops off at scenic villages (Estevez resists the temptation of setting the Pamplona stop-off during the running of the bulls), drinks from beautiful fountains, crosses stunning hills and is invited to dinner where the diners sit around a long table as the sun sets behind. But this is a road movie first and foremost and you can't have a road movie without these things, surely. No complaints here.
However, Estevez unintentionally evokes what it must feel like to walk the Camino: it's at first full of boundless energy and excitement and wonder of what lies ahead, but that soon gives way to tedium, repetition and tiredness. At 128 minutes, a half hour could have easily been shaved from its running time as the middle sags badly - Estevez seems to be wary of this and attempts to hurry things along with four montages (set to the music of James Taylor, Alanis Morissette, David Gray and Nick Drake). Like The Way as a whole, this works and doesn't all at once.
Kudos then to Sheen for pulling the movie along when it's in danger of floundering. A gentle and quiet performance, Sheen says as little as possible throughout and its testament to his talent that the audience is still privy to what is going on inside him.

Review by bigscreen.ie