Sunday, October 23, 2011

The Way

We had a date with Beckie today. She is very busy with work and her internship and our schedules don't match up with hers very often. We got to catch up on each others' lives a bit and have an early dinner. Aside from getting to see our baby, the other highlight of our day was going to see The Way.

This film was written and directed by Emilio Estevez. He also acted in this film which starred his dad, Martin Sheen. It's the story of a man who has to travel to France where his son has died on the Camino de Santiago from France to Spain. The Camino is the pilgrimage route to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela where the remains of the apostle James are enshrined.

The story is sometimes sad, but also funny and inspiring. Martin Sheen is one of my favorite actors, (I still miss him as President Bartlett in West Wing). He does a wonderful job as the father who works through his grief by carrying his son's ashes on the Camino. At the beginning he is a man on a mission with no patience for the other pilgrims he meets along the way. On his journey, he leaves a handful of ashes as he imagines his son at different points along the path. He falls in with an unlikely group of pilgrims and by the end they are friends.

I really enjoyed this film. It was truly inspiring and I am thinking of researching the Camino to possibly put the experience on my bucket list. Go see this movie - I highly recommended it. Unfortunately, I don't think too many people know about it. There were only 5 other people in the theater, It is worth the effort to seek it out.

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