Review: The Way Back

Director: Peter Weir

Starring: Jim Sturgess, Ed Harris, Colin Farrell

Year: 2010

Genre: Action/Adventure

Rated: PG-13

Length: 133 min.

IMDB Summary: Siberian gulag escapees walk 4000 miles overland to freedom in India.

Review:
The Way Back was an entertaining survival story within a historical setting, despite some cheesy music and cinematography resembling a National Geographic show (after all, National Geographic funded the film). The acting was good, though I did not feel a connection with any of the characters apart from the lead. The middle of the movie gets a little slow, as the escapees trek across Siberia and the Gobi Desert. So much time is spent in these two locales, in fact, that the journey across the Himalayas seems to be depicted in fast forward, as the escapees suddenly end up in Northern India, with small children laughing and clinging to them. I think that the final shots, of a husband and wife reuniting years later, were unnecessary--Weir could have used text onscreen to inform viewers, which would have been a more stylistic and less confusing approach. If you enjoy survival films, then The Way Back is a movie you won't want to miss.

For Parents:
Some violence (a stabbing, elements of nature cause sunstroke and frozen bodies, starvation, teeth fall out, threatening with guns and knives) and brief strong language (in subtitles)

My Rating:
***

Image from imdb.com