I’m not the kind of person who likes to just meander around. But in this world, there are people who find pleasure in just moving around. This is a film which features a group of people hiking on the Camino de Santiago, a network of pilgrimages leading to the shrine of James the Apostle in northwestern Spain. It was Taylor Emilio Estevez’s son that actually influenced this movie because he drove it with Martin Sheen his grandfather in 2003. While on that journey Taylor found his future wife and seemed to have had some kind of an impact from the experience. Initially, Estevez and Sheen considered doing a documentary but then opted for something more elaborate as a narrative feature film.
Dr. Thomas Avery (Sheen) is an American eye doctor completely surprised to find out his estranged boy Daniel (Estevez) has passed away. While hiking the Camino, Daniel was killed in a terrible storm on the Pyrenees. He flew to Spain to bring back his son’s body, but decides to complete the trip scattering Dan’s ashes along the way. In addition to other travelers, he crosses paths with Joost a friendly Dutchman. Canadian lady Sarah (Deborah Kara Unger) suffers from PTSD resulting from her own abusive relationship experiences. Jack is an Irish travel writer attempting to overcome a serious case of writer’s block. On this expedition, these four individuals interact and experience various struggles and arguments among themselves. By the end of it all Tom now longs for more exploration into other parts of this world and hopes to make another journey soon enough
This film wasn’t for me. Right from the start, it felt like Pure Flix all over again. It is not a fundamentalist Christian proselytizing movie, but it drew Pat Robertson’s Christian Broadcasting Network to its attention and they approached it for interviews and promoted it. The setting was interesting making every scene be accompanied by awe-inspiring landscape visuals. I have never heard of this trail until I watched the movie which revealed this fact.
I couldn’t help wondering if the documentary idea would have been better than what we got as melodrama; that would keep me engaged till the end. In fact, watching this movie didn’t make me feel anything emotionally because it’s too cloying. But a moment when Tom is given his son’s ashes should touch you deeper, yet I didn’t even shed my tear eye over that one.
It is because their emotion in film does not come from an authentic place and maturity unlike the affective depth of such scenes in movies is achieved by palpable formulas alone. Characters are made as one-dimensional as possible with only a few oddities about them defining them more fully. These were just roles played by actors rather than actual people who looked real enough to pass for any average person on the streets or anywhere else like that.
If I were to change directors, I would have gone for someone like Kelly Reichardt. She has a way of showing every day people in movies like Wendy & Lucy or Other Women and making their emotional struggles seem real. Her movies aren’t sappy. They often don’t have background music as this will make the audience feel that they are within the characters’ world. In her films, the emotions that come from her characters struggle with inner life because she allows them to be unlikable or suffer from bad things happening to them. It’s not like her conclusions are bursting with joy but they’re truthful enough for viewers to think about something deeper than this picture could possibly offer them.
I don’t give credit to films because they are sweet or nice since these characteristics are quite simple to achieve. This is done by pretending that life is a bed of roses and creating nearly all-white cast, which is the main idea behind this film. The movie goes on for hours, far longer than it should have taken. Its plot just wanders with no interest in any real complexity. That group walks across this area and some encounter happens. They walk through this place and argue about something. This repeats over several instances and never leads to anything unpredictable. Nothing really shocked me; it was quite insipid.
This movie can be best described by one word: trite. One after another, the character extends to the plot and even the music. I’m sure Emilio Estevez had a special meaning for this film but it also shows that he is not much of a good writer-director. Shall we be open about this? This film was made by him simply because his father’s name is Martin Sheen, and he has many friends in Hollywood. It has not been done so because he is an extraordinarily talented filmmaker. Though it may be easily forgotten, there are better filmmakers who could have put an interesting spin on this subject matter.
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