The Way

This beautiful simple and involving film is one of the better films I've seen in the past couple of years. It does what the best of cinema can - it moves us, and reminds us that life is a journey full of chance encounters and that its not all serendipity, but we can walk on too.

Matin Sheen and his son, Emilio Estevez, make a winning team here - the direction, though straightforward is, like Ron Howard, filled with memorable scenes and images that linger. Sheen himself is always good at taking us with him - his half-amused, half-bemused style suits this perfectly. As he travels on the old pilgrimage route to Santiago de Compostela to deal with tragic loss he meets and forms a group with three other pilgrims.

All in all, the overall experience of watching this is simply pleasure - and like Danny Boyle's films, it seems simple but it is a complete experience. The Way is human, emotive, emotional, and sincere, and for this viewer a good journey.

This is surely Emilio Estevez's Masterwork, in the same way as was Costner's "Dances with Wolves". It is "The Quiet Epic"! The movie didn't require; Noise, CGI, Foul Language or Special Effects - all that it needed and got were; Across the Board Top Class Acting Performances and Brilliant Cinematography.

Although, no longer a spring chicken, I spent over 2 hours completely engrossed in this film, alternating between tears and laughter. I found it was a movie made with such loving care that it encouraged, and enabled me, to share their experience and make my own life journey with them. My own emotions and life history became intermingled with theirs. I feel it was Emilio's intention for us all to take "Our Own Way".

My main sadness is that so many people will be unable to see it at cinemas, as it has only been given a single weeks run to facilitate the usual glut of "So called Blockbusters". Movies like The Way need time to breathe, as "Word of Mouth" is the key to expanding Audience figures and the wider appreciation such a work deserves..

This carefully written road movie drama was directed by Emilio Estevez, who used traditional footage, and laid out the story over a compelling soundtrack with artists such as Tyler Bates, James Taylor and Nick Drake. In brief, we're following Martin Sheen's character Tom during his pilgrimage journey whilst mourning his dead son who died on the same pilgrim route after only one day. Tom meets people along the way who also become his friends, although Tom himself is uninviting. In contrast to the other characters Tom develops throughout the film and goes through the various stages of mourning that come with a great loss such as he suffered. Except from the usual message that people spend too little time reflecting over their life's I think "The Way" makes a good job of describing the strong bond between father and son, and at the same time highlight some problems with that relationship. Some scenes are obviously there to hammer in those two messages and the film would have been even better had they been made more subtle. I do recommend watching this film, and I think it shows that Emilio Estevez' directing skills don't just pertain to "Bobby".

I have looked forward to "the way" since first hearing about it. I heard interviews with Martin Sheen himself and a great double interview with Martin and Emilio on Irish radio. I did a part of the camino in 2009 and It was a life changing/enhancing experience for me so I couldn't wait to see how the film would deal with it. Yesterday I saw the film in the Screen cinema in College Green Dublin. The film is, in my opinion, very true to the camino experience. A previous reviewer trivialised it as "a road movie" and suggested "wizard of Oz" characterisation. The camino "road" has been travelled for over a thousand years. Long before "road movies" were even thought about and yes, any story of fellow travellers sharing their stories on a journey, can be similar to the "wizard of Oz" but I think Chaucers "Canterbury Tales" is probably the true origin of the species. The camino de Santiago in its reality, and in this film, is a wonderful kaleidoscopic confluence of humanity. Pilgrims seem to self-select for certain character traits such as eccentricity, other worldliness, joyfullness, adventurousness, hurt, curiosity etc. Tom's companions were all from the palette of characters I found on the camino. Tom himself was an accidental pilgrim and only at the end of the camino did he allow himself to fall in love with it like the others. Tom, the cynical skeptic, driven to put one foot in front of another as a way of dealing with the brokenness of his relationship with his son and the trauma of his sudden death, allows the distance required to allow viewers share in the journey of the Camino in a way that could not have been achieved by following four "ordinary" pilgrims, no matter how colourful. Tom was the "straight man", the foil, that allowed the full colours of all the other characters to shine through. I thought it was a brilliant piece of cinema. Ole!

Like most road movies, this is as much about the characters' inward journey as it is about getting from A to B. At times it is too sentimental for my taste and some of the encounters seem rather artificial. But it has considerable warmth, humanity and good humour.

I saw this at the BFI in London at a screening attended by Emilio Estevez and Martin Sheen. They are very proud of their film and it obviously means a lot to them, as father and son. They came across as intelligent and socially aware people, which was great to see.

During the discussion, a member of the audience pointed out the parallels with "The Wizard of Oz", something which I confess escaped me while the film was on but seemed perfectly obvious when I heard it. So watch out for that if you see the movie, and also look out for a cameo by Matt Clark, veteran character actor and, apparently, good friend of MArtin Sheen.