The Way is a nice little movie about a father whose son dies on the El camino de Santiago, and who spontaneously decides to walk it himself when he goes over to pick up his son’s body.

I would not call this a deep and interesting movie. The dialog is pretty light for a film about 4 people walking together for hundreds of miles with nothing to do but talk to each other (or not talk to each other!) But it’s not an inconsequential film either. Rather, I would call it a light, soothing, somewhat meditative film, good for chilling on a Sunday night before a stressful week at work. The characters are fairly interesting, and they look pretty real (this isn’t Matt Damon and ScarJo on the trail, these people are pretty grubby and unattractive, which is a plus.) The relationships between the four central characters develop in a fairly interesting way, despite the lack of dialog; they come to like aspects of each other while never really truly liking each other – it feels refreshing. The camera work is good, and the score is decent, if kind of unoriginal and monotonous.

The most interesting thing about the film is its multifaceted depiction of the culture of the modern pilgrims: the decidedly mixed comradory, the issue of the pilgrims being a blight on the land and wrecking each other’s experience by their sheer numbers, and the intimate personal reasons someone might choose to undertake this trek. It has nothing deep to say about any of this, and I must say I was rather underwhelmed by the film’s ending, but it was still a pleasant film experience on a subject I knew nothing about.

I recommend The Way, but just like characters walking the trail in this movie, don’t expect miracles.