The movie The Way, staring Martin Sheen and his son Emilio Estevez, opens in Canada in Toronto and Vancouver November 4th
The film will subsequently open on November 11th in Edmonton, Calgary, Victoria, Ottawa, Halifax, and Winnipeg. The movie is being distributed by Mongrel Media and will be shown at the Cineplex theatres throughout Canada.
If you have done the camino, or are planning to do it, or simply want to be inspired to do something great in your life, then this is a “must see” film.
The movie stars Martin Sheen and his son Emilio Estevez and was written, directed, and co-produced by Emilio Estevez. It is also stars local Canadian native Deborah Kara Unger, as a divorced Canadian woman, James Nesbitt as an Irish author and Yorick van Wageningen, as a goofy Dutch pothead.
Martin Sheen plays Tom, an American doctor and widower who travels to St. Jean Pied de Port, France to recover the body of his estranged adult son (played by Emilio), who was killed accidentally during a storm while walking The Camino de Santiago (The Way of Saint James). Driven by his profound grief, Tom decides to finish the 800 kilometer pilgrimage his son began, taking his son's cremated remains with him and spreading them along the historical trek - from the Pyrenees in southern France, to Santiago de Compostela in northwest of Spain.
While walking “The Camino” Tom meets other pilgrims from around the world bearing their own unique burdens, each of them, seeking for greater meaning in their lives. The film centers on an unlikely quartet featuring the main protagonist Tom, a gregarious Dutchman (played brilliantly by Yorick van Wageningen) a Canadian with an attitude (Deborah Kara Unger) and an Irish narcissistic travel writer (James Nesbitt) who is experiencing writer's block.
Together these pilgrims experience community in the journey together as they learn from one another. Tom’s inner healing is gradual, as is his journey from agnosticism back to faith again. The words of his son come back to him as he learns to let go of his California-country-club life and discover the difference between "The life we live and the life we choose."