movie review: The Way

While Charlie Sheen has been making a lot of headlines lately for his crass and insane behavior, his brother and father stayed under the radar and quietly made a poignant independent film.

The Way stars Martin Sheen (real name, for those of you wondering about the family connection: Ramon Estevez) as Doctor Thomas Avery, a practical man who has been long estranged from his bohemian son, Daniel (played in flashbacks by Emilio Estevez). Daniel inadvertently alienated his father when he decided to abandon his doctorate studies in favor of seeing the world, and in the duration since that decision, the two have gone months at a time without talking or even knowing where the other one is. One day, Tom Avery is informed that his son has died in an accident (the details of which are never explained) while walking the Camino de Santiago, a Catholic pilgrimage route through France and Spain. Tom travels to France to identify Daniel's body, and on a highly uncharacteristic whim, decides to honor Daniel's memory by walking the Camino de Santiago (or "the Way") in Daniel's stead. Along the Way, Tom occasionally stops to sprinkle some of Daniel's ashes.

The conception of this movie began as a documentary, and it shows, as director/ producer/ writer Emilio Estevez goes to great lengths to present the Camino de Santiago in all its wonder: the towns and villages along the way, the beautiful landscapes visible from almost every step of the Way, the cultures of the various people one encounters on the journey, et cetera. One of the supporting characters even explains the history of the Camino de Santiago to Tom, who, knowing nothing about the Way before he sets out on his journey, serves as an audience surrogate in his ignorance.

Along the Way, Tom is joined by three other pilgrims. They are, in order of appearance, Joost, a garrulous and thoroughly friendly Dutchman walking the Camino in order to lose some weight; Sarah, a highly cynical Canadian (minus the cliches) who claims that she will quit smoking upon completion of the journey, although no one believes her; and Jack, a writer who hopes that walking the Camino de Santiago will rid him of his writer's block.

If The Way starts out as a story about Tom's journey of self-discovery, it morphs into a story about how four disparate characters can become friends despite Sarah's cynicism and Tom's grumpiness and impatience with his three traveling companions. This is a highly welcome evolution of the film's focus, as journeys of self-discovery may be fascinating life experiences, but rarely translate well into the cinematic art form.

Writing this review, I am reminded of the formula for a type of film that is, stylistically, a million miles removed from The Way: the buddy action comedy. In a buddy action comedy, two guys (almost always cops) are ostensibly opposites and initially hate each other, but as they bond over cooperating toward a common goal, they gradually learn that they are more alike than different, and end up as friends.

That's the exact same formula followed by The Way, albeit in a very, very different fashion. There are no explosions or fight scenes in The Way. Indeed, it must be emphasized that if you want to see a fast-paced movie, this is not the movie for you. Because of the concept of the film, most of this movie consists of shots of Martin Sheen (sometimes accompanied by his companions) just walking down the Camino de Santiago. Much of this walking is punctuated by dialogue. Much of it isn't. The dialogue is, not entirely, but largely made up of exposition -- exposition about the characters' lives and motivations for walking the Camino, and, because of the film's origins as an intended documentary, exposition about the history of the Camino and the cultures of the peoples who live and walk along the path.

I found most of this highly interesting, although my patience was tried by the long stretches of silence between the dialogue scenes. (Incidentally, however, these silences were nothing when compared to The Mill and the Cross, a movie so inactive and quiet that it would have me tearing my hair out if I had any.) For me, the most interesting scenes, by far, were the scenes about the four pilgrims gradually becoming friends during their journey. As a result of all of this, my emotional reaction to this movie was oddly contradictory: On the one hand, I was relieved when it was finally over, but on the other hand, I thought, "I can see myself enjoying a sequel," just because I really would love to see if, and how, the friendships between these characters could endure after they go their separate ways.