A Walk To Remember

by Thomas Willett

11:00pm PST, October 19, 2011

There’s something inspiring about nature in cinema. From 127 Hours to Into the Wild, nature has given the stories time to unfold and reveal characters in ways that urban stories can’t. There’s no great explanation, but time after time, it has succeeded in helping to reevaluate life without complicating the plot.

The Way is the latest to join this series of meditative movies in which Tom (Martin Sheen) goes on a quest to hike El Camino de Santiago, a trail his son, Daniel (Emilio Estevez), attempted to cross before mysteriously dying. Along the way, Tom is joined by Joost (Yorick van Wageningen), a Dutchman attempting to lose weight, Sarah (Deborah Kara Unger), a Canadian attempting to quit smoking, and Jack (James Nesbitt), an Irish writer trying to start a novel. While the company is lively, Tom is very distant and occasionally sees hallucinations of his son.

While it’s a story centralized around walking, the greatest moments come from the characters attempting to entertain each other. It succeeds in adding a warm tone of affection to parrallel the cold protagonist as the group visits different cities and witnesses bizarre forms of hospitality. It’s the idea of having a friend in a strange land that eventually helps the story progress into more interesting territories and eventually explore personal themes, including religious symbolism. While the spiritual elements are a little heavy handed towards the end, it helps to personify Tom and give the finale a more emotional emphasis.

Director and writer Emilio Estevez’s tale is more uplifting when considering the real life relationship he has with his father, Martin Sheen. With many characters having allegorical connections to The Wizard of Oz, the quest becomes grander as the characters become more open and helpful. Sheen plays the role with a great sense of conviction that he’s been honing for decades. Also, by sparsely using Estevez, it helps to build a richer tone.

The supporting cast is also stellar. The notable standout is Yorick van Wageningen, whose cheerful performance provides many moments of comical relief that balance out the dark issues. His friendly nature opens the door for some of Deborah Kara Unger and James Nesbitt’s best moments. Together, they provide an alternative analyzation of the hike to the religious symbolism that Sheen presents. It may be a small portion, but it helps to flesh out the overall lesson.

While the soundtrack features familiar songs by the Shins and James Taylor, it adds a meditative atmosphere that makes the scenic walks more peaceful. Estevez also does a great job of painting the French and Spanish towns as beautiful open fields with old-fashioned brick housing and a lot of fancy delicatessens. While many of the townsfolk are almost generic, they are created in a way that benefits the story for those few moments when one stands out and impacts the scene with an underlying message.

The Way lacks all of the big flairs of other wilderness movies. However, by focusing on the basic elements of life, it helps to achieve much more by focusing on characters with a common journey but for different reasons. It manages to deal with loss in a way that doesn’t feel contrived and how it leads to discovery. The best part of it all is that it does it with a big, warm smile and a fun cast of unique characters that bring the joys out of walking together for two hours.