The Way Back

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Myself

Wow, another epic. More amazing locations. Unlike The English Patient, this time I had to opposite problem of freezing my ass off in the cinema air conditioning watching people freeze to death in Siberia. I'm never happy am I.

Peter Weir takes his time between movies, but who cares when they are all this good. Another great cast, some I knew and some I didn't. Some I was surprised to see pop up in the film, but that's the joy of not having seen much advertising or reading any reviews of a film before you see it, the pleasant surprises.

So while it is 2 hours of people walking, it's not Gus Van Sant minimalist. we slowly learn about the characters and their backstories, there are a variety of problems to overcome and they traverse a ridiculous distance through a huge variety of locations.

It is surprisingly involving, especially since we know from the introduction that 3 men survive but when we see them start off there are 6. There is hardly any score, the sound has nothing to hide behind. There are quite a few uncomfortable sections of silence. The make up and the great acting sells the characters exhaustion terrifically, it's hard to watch sometimes.

Overall I really enjoyed this but didn't really appreciate the very end. Having different actors play the older versions of the same character we've just been watching and getting involved with for over 2 hours is a little distancing for what should have been a more emotional reunion. That's probably just me being picky though, Im sure most people won't care. I hope Peter Weir makes more films soon.