The Way Back (2010) - Poster 4 (DVD CD Cover).jpg

The Way Back

Rated M
Review by Margaret Pomeranz

After an absence of years since his film Master and Commander in 2003, Peter Weir is back with THE WAY BACK, the story of a long and gruelling journey from a Siberian Gulag to freedom in India, a voyage of some 4000 miles, all of it on foot.

Janusz, JIM STURGESS, is a Polish cavalry officer who is sent to Siberia on trumped up charges of betraying the Party and spying for the enemy. The chances of survival in the camp are slim. He decides to escape with Mr. Smith, ED HARRIS, an American who was arrested in Russia, with Valka, COLIN FARRELL, a hardened criminal from Moscow, and three others. The country may be beautiful but it's harsh.

Avoiding settlements or any encounters with locals because there is a bounty on any escapee's head, they meet up with a young woman Irene, SOAIRSE RONAN, and suspiciously at first they let her accompany them.

Supposedly based on a true account this is an experiential film. I felt every one of those steps, through snow, over mountains, around Lake Baikal and eventually through the Gobi Desert to Tibet. Exhausting. The landscapes have been beautifully captured by Russell Boyd.

What Peter Weir avoids is contrived drama, there is very little conflict between the men and no lust after the woman, she just becomes a member of this diverse family. The only characters to really emerge are the girl, Janusz, Valka and Mr. Smith. It's an uncompromising film, necessarily episodic in its depiction of the group's quest for survival, but mesmerizingly involving.

Further comments:

MARGARET: David.

DAVID: I think mesmerising is a good word, actually, because Peter Weir has depicted this extraordinary story of survival and really, when you think about it, even if the book wasn't exactly a true story and the film fictionalises it but these sorts of walks were done and there were survivors and that, in itself, is amazing.

MARGARET: I think Peter Weir interviewed a lot of people who were escapees from the gulags.

DAVID: Yes. Yes. So I think visually, as with all Peter Weir's films, this is really outstanding and really quite memorable. There's always a problem with this sort of film when you get actors from various backgrounds playing central Europeans. The question of the accent: what do you do? And I'm sure this was thought about and discussed a lot and in the end they all play with accents, which I find just a little bit unsettling, but I honestly don't know what the solution is so there you go.

MARGARET: I must say that did not worry me at all.

DAVID: That didn't worry you, no, okay. And I had a bit of motivation that I was slightly, slightly puzzled by. But, look, I think it's such an impressive film and such a sincere piece of work and Peter Weir is one of our great directors so it's great to see.

MARGARET: And it is an amazing achievement and obviously someone did it, so to go on that journey through that terrain during those seasons, the film makes you understand all of that. I'm giving it four stars.

DAVID: Yes, me too. Four stars.

Margaret: **** David: ****