My choice this week was to watch “The Way” written by Emilio Estevez (screenplay) and Jack Hitt (novel), and directed by Emilio Estevez. The IMDb link is http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1441912/.
This story starts out with Tom played by Martin Sheen, a wealthy doctor who out of the blue recieves a call from a police station in France concerning the his son Daniel played by Emilio Estevez. After learning of Daniel’s death on the “El Camino de Santiago” a pilgrims trail that runs from southern France through to the Spanish coast, Tom decides that in memory of his son he will finish the journey that his son started. Along his journey Tom runs into other “pilgrims” walking the road for thier own various reasons. Joost played by Yorick Van Wageningen, a large Dutch man from Amsterdam is walking the trail to lose his extra weight. Sarah played by Deborah Unger is a Canadian who promised herself that at the end of the trail she will quit her vice of smoking cigarettes. Last but not least Tom, Joost, and Sarah run into a Irish travel magazine writer Jack played by James Nesbitt, whose only purpose of walking this trail is to fuel ideas for his book and finally make him a novel writer. As they progress through thier journey they learn more about each other but Tom remains silent on his reasons for the journey, until after a drunken outburst everyone figures out why he has been spreading ashes throughout the journey. After this Tom finds himself opening up and accepting the journey as a life altering expirience that few ever achieve. Finally upon reaching the end of thier journey they all leave changed individuals and close friends forever connected by thier expirience. With the end of Toms journey he finally understands his estranged son and the reasons for the things that he did.
I watched this movie at home this weekend on Netflix since it popped up on my reccomended que. This film spoke to me in ways that only my favorite movies do. As an aspiring writer and traveler it was interesting as well as emotional. It takes you on an emotional journey where the main character and surrounding characters all change by the end of thier quest. The only thing I did not like was the flow of how Tom changed, I would have preferred that the change would have been more gradual and direct. Over all this movie was a great story that really leaves you with a sense of self evaluation. I definitely would reccomend this movie to anyone that is a fan of spiritual and emotional films, which I would have to guess is most people.
nomapneeded 