The Way – a movie

I recently had the opportunity, to see a movie called “The Way”, starring Martin Sheen as Tom, a California doctor who travels to France to retrieve the remains of his adult son, Daniel played by Emilio Estevez who also wrote and directed it. Estevez did an outstanding job in bringing this project to the screen. Completed in 2010 but recently released in October 2011, we found it on only one screen in our local megaplex.

This is one of those movies that is all about relationships, so it will tug at your emotions as you experience the story as it unfolds. Daniel’s mother is dead and he is a few steps away from completing his Doctorate at a prestigious university when he asks his dad to take him to the airport where he will embark on a journey to discover the world. We witness the usual tense conversation between father and son who have grown distant over the years. Days later, on the golf course with friends, Tom receives a call from France informing him that his son has been killed in a freak snow storm in the Pyrenees while walking the Camino de Santiago, also known as The Way of Saint James.

Tom travels to St. Jean Pied de Port, France to make arrangements to bring his son’s remains home. While spending the night in his hotel room, he examines the contents of Daniel’s pack and is flooded with the flashback we all experience remembering events of the past – both good and bad. Rather than return home, he decides to continue on Daniel’s journey in the path of St. James, the 500 mile Camino de Santiago from France to Spain carrying the ashes of his cremated son.

Tom sets off alone. In his thoughts along the way, he remembers the boy, the joy and sorrow of their relationship; what was and what might have been. It’s the first of many a tearful moment for anyone who has lost someone dear to them.

But Tom is not alone for long. He meets other pilgrims from around the world. Each one of them has their own issues and are looking for greater meaning in their lives, Joost, a Dutchman, from Amsterdam, packing an endless supply of weed is played by Yorick van Wageningen. He is looking to lose weight on the journey. We later find out that his wife no longer finds him attractive because of the weigh that he has put on during the course of their marriage. (hint: weed gives you the munchies) . Also on the road is Sarah, a Canadian, played by Deborah Kara Unger. She’s chain smoking on the walk and her objective is to give up smoking when she reaches the end. Last, the group meets Jack, an Irish travel writer played by James Nesbitt, who is suffering from a bout of writer’s block.

Tom is standoffish at first but through a series of personal interactions among themselves, they begin to form a personal bond. The film was shot on location and filmed so beautifully that I felt as though I was walking with them. On the way, the group encounters welcoming hosts and some weird situations in hostels. In one town, Tom’s pack is stolen by a young boy. The travelers pursue the young thief but to no avail. Later a man with his son in tow, returns the pack that his son had taken. He makes amends by inviting the group to dinner at his house a part of a gypsy enclave in the town. This proves to be an opportunity to see other people in a different light removed from prejudice and stereotypes.

The father sees the pain in Tom and urges him to continue the journey beyond the cathedral , Santiago de Compostela to land’s end on the Atlantic Ocean. Tom scatters Daniel’s ashes to the sea. Joost accepts himself for who he is and buys a new, larger size suit. Kara continues to smoke. Jack completes the book which had remained elusive until this point.

More importantly, Tom decides that it is his time to make his way in the world and at the end of the film we see him walking in a Middle Eastern Bazaar. He discovers the difference between “the life we live and the life we choose” as Daniel said early on in the film.

“Buen camino” (“Good Journey”)