a review by Mary Ellen Graybill

“The Way” is the way to go at the movies! Starring Martin Sheen as Tom, a grieving father who walks the Camino de Santiago, a medieval Christian pilgrims route through Spain, as he dispenses the ashes of his late son, played by his real son, and the director and writer of the movie, Emilio Estevez. On the way, he meets three characters, each on their own pilgrimage of solitary seeking. The four form a reluctant group as they keep finding themselves on the pathway to an understanding of their own purpose and each other’s journey.

The movie opens with Daniel telling his father, “You don’t choose a life, you live a life.” Sadly Daniel loses his life in the quest for adventure on the trail. Martin Sheen, is thus knocked out of his ordinary life as an eye doctor in the suburbs, and decides to take the trip and dispense his son’s ashes and perhaps find what his son was seeking. (Note that in the Catholic faith, cremation is acceptable, reportedly, but ashes generally are kept together, but not so in “The Way”)

Tom starts out understandably depressed and sad over the loss he has experienced. When a priest asks Tom to pray with him, Tom replies, “What for?”

Thus the movie begins – Tom having lost his son, peace and faith, and when he arrives at the start of the 800 kilometer walk, like some other travelers, he appears exhausted by life’s shocks. He carries the box of ashes and reveals little to companions on the trail.

Along the way, Tom encounters not just his own pain, but those, indirectly, of three other characters that seem to be showing up at every turn. Joust is walking to lose weight and re-gain a wife’s attentions. It seems that there should be more to his character, but that is all that is revealed.

Soon, the two blend together, if not as comrades, as cooperative acquaintances.

Then, Sarah, a smoker and Canadian joins, looking bedraggled and bitter, later to reveal a tragic past. She never does give up cigarettes which is the surface reason she gives for her pilgrimage.

Next, there’s the writer named Jack, an Irishman, who aggravates the group – and who is taking notes along the way for a future book. He hopes to overcome writer’s block.

The group moves along dealing passively with each other, and the rainy weather conditions. Soon, a thief that steals Tom’s box of his son’s ashes causes the group to run together to help Tom, and a merging of the friends is evident. Towards the end of the hike, they find that they have bonded – and they all end up laughing in Tom’s room. The celebration of what they have accomplished has begun!

It is a spiritual achievement – both the movie’s beauty of scenery along the amazing Camino de Santiago between Spain and France – villages and warm people along the pilgrimage trail, and the way the characters blend together.

[NOTE: The Way played recently at The Point of View in Millersville and The Strand-Capital in York. Unfortunately, it is not currently playing in the area. Keep a look out for The Way on video in a store near you.]