The Way Back Review

Peter Weir takes his time between movies; seven years after the brilliant Master and Commander (which itself came out five years after The Truman Show), Weir returns to the big screen with The Way Back, an account of a group of refugees' journey from a prison camp in Siberia to India.  At one point, while discussing how the group will cross the Himalayas when they reach them, Jim Sturgess's character says simply, "We walk."  Never before has a line of dialogue so perfectly summed up a movie.

Indeed, most of this two hour-plus movie is composed of shots of the refugees trekking across all sorts of terrain, whether it's snowy tundras, icy lakes, barren deserts, or dangerous forests.  The settings are gorgeous and beautifully captured, but one wishes that more attention was given to the story, specifically the characters' backstories, instead of the landscapes they are trapped in.  The attention to detail in the costuming, sets, and make-up is appreciated, but doesn't make up for the lack of narrative content.

The cast is comprised of big names who don't get much to do with their characters.  Sturgess is fine but he could be anybody; there's no hook for him to really dig into his character, meaning we're saddled with a rather bland protagonist.  Ed Harris fares slightly better as the American Mr. Smith, though again, his character isn't nearly as fleshed-out as he could've been.  Colin Farrell's accent could use a more subtlety, though it certainly doesn't help that he's stuck with such hackneyed dialogue.  Given the material, he does rather well.

The highlight of the cast is Saoirse Ronan, a young actress who has proven to be supremely versatile and always exciting to watch.  She gives her character more depth than any of the others and serves a source of warmth in an otherwise cold film. Additionally, she brings out the best in the other actors, especially Harris.  Their characters' relationship is one of the few sincere emotional elements the film provides.

Still, even if the travelers aren't as rounded and interesting as we might hope, the journey is so perilous, so inspiring, that it's impossible to not be swept up in the sheer scope of it.  Based on true events, it's a fascinating peek at an aspect of World War II that hasn't had much light shed on it before.  That said, the final newsreel/walking montage simply doesn't work.  It's a total artistic misstep that takes the audience out of the film and softens the impact of the final emotional reunion.  Regardless, The Way Back is an often thrilling, if understated, record of a harrowing journey that won't soon be forgotten, even if it isn't clearly remembered.