The Way

Movie: The Way

Genre: drama

Synopsis: Tom (Martin Sheen) is a successful ophthalmologist.  He has had a troubled relationship with his son Daniel (Emelio Estevez), who abandoned his doctoral studies to go trekking around the world.  Tom learns that Daniel was killed in a freak storm as he was beginning a 700+ kilometer pilgrimage along the “Camino de Santiago” – which starts in France and ends up in Spain.  When Tom flies to France to claim the body, on the spur of the moment he decides to have the remains cremated and to take the pilgrimage with his son’s ashes.  Along the journey, Tom gradually loses the pent-up anger he has and bonds with three other “pilgrims” who are each making the pilgrimage for their own reasons.

My two cents: The movie was interesting. Much of the movie was like a travelogue of Camino de Santiago. What I could not get past was the idea of a man in his fifties with no hiking experience (at least not mentioned) just up and deciding to go on a hike of over 700 kilometers with absolutely no preparation.  In hindsight, I would have been satisfied with waiting for to watch this movie on TV.

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