"The Way" Movie Review

Recently, while out with friends the question came up of what Emilio Estevez had been doing recently. He hadn't really been in the public eye, unlike his more flamboyant brother.

This week I got the answer, he was making a movie - "The Way" and it stars his father, Martin Sheen. I have enjoyed Martin Sheen movies ever since I first saw him in "Apocalypse Now", I'm sure I had seen him in other shows before that, but you know how that movie sticks with you. I consider him a talented actor and will go to see whatever show he's in.

When I first saw the advert, I had my doubts, the tag for the flick on the movie page I looked at put it in the Comedy category. I'm not a big fan of the comedy that's coming out of Hollywood. I'm more a 'Nick and Nora' type of comedy as opposed to 'The Three Stooges' or 'Jerry Lewis', which is a lot of what is being produced. But it had Martin Sheen in it and I couldn't see him doing an Adam Sandler type of comedy flick.

I was very pleasantly surprised. This is not a comedy, you are watching a small group of people taking a journey from one stage of their life to the next. All of them are in different places, emotionally and spiritually and, for a short time, they come together to help each other on this specific part of their individual journeys.

This is a potential spoiler alert - You can get all this information from the movie trailer but if you don't want to read spoilers, this is the paragraph to skip. The plot line is a comfortable, well to do doctor is at odds with his son, who is trying to find himself. While making a pilgrimage along the Camino de Santiago which runs from France into Spain the son dies in a severe storm in the French Pyrenees. The father goes to collect his son and the story evolves from there. It is very character driven and, as you watch, each of the four main characters come together to form a small support group and eventually reveal themselves to the others. Being able to reveal themselves provides a healing for all members of the group. Human connection, all too often, is lost or hurtful in today's world and this film reminds us that we need that connection in order to function as human beings.

The scenery and visuals of the film are beautifully done, in fact, breathtaking in a couple of shots. There are some great shots of older towns and the architecture in France and Spain where the 500-mile Camino de Santiago religious pilgrimage path winds its way. There is a lot of religious iconography throughout the film but it is being shot along a religious pilgrimage route, and so, is to be expected. Do not take that to mean that this film is staunchly for or against any particular religion. While there are Catholic symbols throughout the film, it does not proselytize for any religion. My impression was that this is a deeply spiritual film but it is a private spiritualism not a 'my religion's better than yours' spiritualism. During one of his interviews for this film, Estevez stated that it represents where he is at in this moment with his own philosophy of spiritualism and religion. This is a good answer to the questions he might be asking.

I recommend this flick for a lot of reasons. Martin Sheen is excellent in the role of grieving father being haunted by the son he lost. And you can't help but wonder if part of the emotion may have come from the on-going turmoil caused by his other son, Charlie. The interaction between the characters is believable and is the best part of the story. There are a lot of familiar faces in the film, good character actors that were chosen well for this story. And the location shots are a perfect backdrop for the story being told.

Do the characters find what they were looking for on their journey? Do you always find what you're looking for when you are searching for something? Or do you find something else which turns out to be exactly what you needed?