The Way

Grief and the posthumous reconciliation of a father-child relationship form the crux of one man's spiritual journey along the historical Christian route known as El Camino de Santiago in writer-director Emilio Estevez's The Way. California ophthalmologist Tom Avery (Martin Sheen) is a widower whose only son, Daniel (Estevez), abandons his doctoral dissertation to travel around the world. But soon afterwards, Tom receives a phone call from a policeman in a French village in the Pyrenees. Caught in a blizzard, Daniel died while hiking “The Way of Saint James,” a 780-kilometer trip (nearly 500 miles) from France, across the mountains to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela in Spain. After having Daniel's remains cremated, Tom impulsively decides to finish his son's trip, placing the ashes in his backpack and joining others who are making the picturesque pilgrimage for various personal reasons. Initially a surly loner, Tom is befriended by a gluttonous, gregarious Dutchman (Yorick van Wageningen) who's trying to lose weight before his brother's wedding; a chain-smoking, emotionally ravaged Canadian (Deborah Kara Unger); and a hard-drinking Irish writer (James Nesbitt), who chronicles Tom's story. Sensitive without being sentimental, this simple, if also somewhat contrived, enlightenment story unfolds slowly through superb ensemble acting, with Estevez's real-life father Sheen delivering a subtly nuanced, compelling performance. Recommended. (S. Granger)