The Way Back (Peter Weir 2010)

Do you have a foot fetish? Do you like all foreigners to have the same accent? Do you enjoy watching people walking? Even if you have said yes to any of these questions, you’d probably still find The Way Back (Peter Weir, 2010) O.K at best. Yes, it’s a remarkable true story, but true stories do not always make the best films as this particular 133 minute incredibly-average-fest shows. Jim Sturgess plays the role of Janusz, a strong-willed, wrongly imprisoned Pole determined to escape from a Siberian gulag. Unfortunately Sturgess comes across as a mildly annoyed teenager in detention. We’re also treated to Colin Farrell’s Russian accent, which amazingly is exactly the same as Sturgess’ Polish one. Both put in bland and mediocre performances that leave you feeling indifferent to the whole situation.

So back to the walking, and there is an awful lot of it. Of course for a film with the story line described as “Siberian gulag escapees walk 4000 miles overland to freedom in India.” and the tagline: “Their escape was just the beginning.” I should of really seen it coming, but thinking back to something like The Road (John Hillcoat, 2009), an incredible “walking movie” with superb writing and acting, just makes me think “NO, it’s not ok for 70% of your film to just be landscapes and walking and landscapes and walking.”, what about character development and the growing friendships and annoyances between the group members? They barely even have an argument!

One of the only redeeming features of this film is Saoirse Ronan’s presence. At just 16 years old she absolutely stole every scene she took part in and is definitely one to watch out for in the future. At times there were a few accent hiccoughs (like with most of the cast) but she put most of her older cast members to shame, especially in the only riveting part of the film – the desert scene. Speaking of scenes, the trailers and descriptions hint at the walk over the Himalayas as being a pivotal part of the storyline, in fact when actually watching the film it is shown as the easiest part of the whole saga, and it appears that conquering the famous mountain range is actually a piece of piss, especially when your feet have swollen to the size of rugby balls, you’ve ate nothing but half a snake and you’ve got a severe case of chapped lips.

For a film about such an extraordinary journey and set against some incredible and breath taking scenery, it is actually quite amazing that the film was so average. Sadly, the beautiful landscapes cannot make up for the fact that this story would have made a quite interesting hour long documentary, or even a very engaging Wikipedia entry, which I’m sure it is.