CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
Hayleigh Joseph This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.
areatw 'The Way' has plenty of appeal and the story behind it is a moving one, but it does feel like a missed opportunity. While anybody who enjoys road trip style films will probably get some pleasure out of 'The Way', it's only engaging for so long and unfortunately doesn't have the depth of plot required for a 2 hour long film.It's around the halfway point when the film really starts to run low on ideas. It becomes repetitive and dull, and in its desperation it resorts to some very unconvincing and poorly written situations. Most notably, the scene where the characters get drunk and start trading insults, which felt totally unnatural and didn't match the atmosphere of the film.
Leftbanker After his son dies in an auto-erotic asphyxiation accident on his first day on the fabled Camino de Santiago (the police code for this is "died in a storm" wink, wink), ex-president Martin Sheen goes to to recover the remains of his ignominiously fallen offspring. Sheen decides that walking the Camino might be a good place to pick up women, so off he goes.Predictable at every step yet I loved the movie for its beautiful depiction of the Spanish countryside and all things Spanish. I'm sure the movie has motivated hundreds of viewers to make the trek. ¡Bravo!
Wuchak Released in 2010, "The Way" stars Martin Sheen as a grieving father who decides to hike Camino de Santiago (aka the Way of St. James), a popular 500-mile trail in northern Spain. There he teams-up with three other solo hikers (Yorick van Wageningen, Deborah Kara Unger & James Nesbitt). Can he work through his grim grief and find inspiration? The movie was produced, directed and written by Estevez based on the book by Jack Hitt. He even plays the star's son in a relatively small role. While there's a lot of good in this movie, like the excellent locations, cast, music, cinematography and message, it's palpably flawed by some weak writing and the corresponding unconvincing social situations. Several scenes needed the kinks worked out, but I'm not blaming the actors. I'm sure they did the best they could with the script they had.A top example of what I'm talking about is when our curmudgeonly protagonist has some kind of drunken meltdown, awkwardly blowing up at his new friends. Sequences like this needed further work, but I'm guessing that Estevez didn't have the funds because fixing & reshooting scenes costs money (the proverbial "time is money"). So, as an unseasoned director, he shot them and said "That's good enough," thinking he could make the movie work in the editing room. It didn't. But there's still some worthwhile material here.Check out 2015's "A Walk in the Woods" with Robert Redford & Nick Nolte for an excellent take on similar terrain.The movie runs 121 minutes and was shot on the actual trail in Spain.GRADE: C-
jb_campo The Way is a film about a younger man who wants to go his own way while his rich father encourages him to lead a more predictable path. For similar films, see 3 Idiots, a Bollywood gem. Emilio Estevez chooses to trek across southern to Spain on the Camino to Santiago, an 800 km hike. Bad news happens quickly, and you soon find his father, Martin Sheen, in taking care of family business. The part that is somewhat difficult to believe is that Sheen can go from a pretty sedentary life, to suddenly hiking 800 kms without a hitch.But it is the journey that counts, and he meets 3 interesting characters who accompany him on El Camino, The Way. It is these interactions with Joost from Holland, Jack from Ireland, and Sarah from Canada that the director Estevez weaves meaning in and out of the story. You learn about the characters, why they are doing this, what drives them, and you slowly see Martin Sheen change before your eyes as the experiences of being on the road open his eyes to more than he normally sees in his offices in California.The Way will make you cry, and laugh, and feel good about the friends you make, and have already made. It is one of those films, like It's a Wonderful Life, where you have to play with the hand you are dealt and learn to appreciate the good things and possibilities that away you on your own journey.My only critique is that the movie did run a big long at just over 2 hours. It could have easily been trimmed down 15 minutes without any loss of quality.You will really like the Way. Enjoy.
