¨You don't choose a life, dad. You live one.¨
The Way is Emilio Estevez´s directorial follow
up to Bobby, and he delivers once again with an honest and authentic film about
a father`s journey to try to reconnect with his dead son in a pilgrimage through
Spain. The film is beautiful and never tries to be over sentimental like most
Hollywood dramas do. One may think of it as a religious film, but I found it to
be more of a spiritual one. Life is kind of like a journey where we are
continually making new relationships, some which may last for a lifetime and others
that won´t, but despite that they do mark and define each one of us. Emilio Estevez
uses the real life pilgrimage through ¨El Camino de Santiago¨ as a metaphor of
life itself, where we see how several different characters interact with each other
despite their differing views. The film touches universal themes that people of
all ages can identify with. It´s hard not to feel nostalgic towards this film
because we might be reminded along the way that we too have come across some of
these characters in our journey through life. We all have different reasons for
making the journey, but that doesn’t mean we cannot all get along and help each
other discover what we are looking for. In that sense the film succeeds in its
spirituality, but it also works thanks to the beautiful scenery and a great
script adapted by Estevez himself from Jack Hitt´s book. The dialogues in this
film are great and despite not having much action we are entertained by the
interaction between the characters. Estevez decided to make a film about El
Camino after his son and father (Martin Sheen) actually made the journey
together in real life. The film does succeed in wanting the viewer to
experience this journey in real life as well.
When Tom (Martin Sheen) receives a phone call
from a police officer in France informing him that his son Daniel (Emilio
Estevez) died in a storm while deciding to make a pilgrimage across Spain known
as ¨El Camino de Santiago, ¨ he immediately gets on a plane to bring back his
dead son´s body. Once he arrives at St. Jean Pied de Port, France and
identifies the body he decides to cremate it and then begins the pilgrimage while
spreading the ashes across various points of the journey. El Camino is an 800
km pilgrimage across Spain that people have been making for centuries ending at
the Cathedral of St. James where the apostle´s body is said to be buried. Tom
realizes there is much more to life than the life he had in California working
as a doctor and spending his free time playing golf. As he begins the journey
he runs into several different pilgrims who are making the journey for several
different reasons. Some of the friends he makes along the way are Joost from
Amsterdam (Yorick van Wageningen), a friendly and talkative man who is making
the pilgrimage because his wife wants him to lose weight, Sarah (Deborah Kara Unger)
a Canadian in her 40`s trying to quit smoking, and an Irish man named Jack
(James Nesbitt) suffering from writer´s block. Along the way these misfits find
a way to get along and help each other out through their issues.
Martin Sheen is always great, he´s one of the
best actor´s of our time, and in this film he really delivers a powerful and
authentic performance. This is the second time he plays Emilio Estevez`s father
in a film directed by his real life son, the first being the 1996 film The War
at Home which I really liked. He brings a lot of authenticity to his character,
but the laughs come from Yorick the Dutch. He is almost unrecognizable from his
role in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and when the mood begins to get too
dark in The Way he always lightens things up. The rest of the cast is also
strong, but the main character here actually is El Camino. It´s just beautiful
and the film makes you want to take the journey yourself. I really enjoyed this
film and would definitely recommend it. It
is a simple and slow film, but Estevez manages to take us on a journey and
reminds us that it is good to get outside of our bubble at times and live life.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario