Movie Review - 'The Way Back'

The Way Back Starring Jim Sturgess, Ed Harris and Colin Farrell Directed by Peter Weir Rated PG-13

The Way Back has a great premise - a group of prisoners escape a Siberian gulag and then must walk 4,000 to India in order to reach freedom. Unfortunately, the movie itself never quite lives up to the potential of this premise. While it has a handful of great dramatic moments and plenty of great visuals, The Way Back is ultimately a film where the whole ends up being less than the sum of its parts.

Part of the problem is that while the main characters are well-rounded and interesting, most of the ensemble cast isn't fully fleshed out. The film focuses primarily on four characters. The star of the film is Janusz (Jim Sturgess), a Polish prisoner charged with espionage after his own wife is tortured and forced to testify against him. Janusz is the defacto leader who plans the escape and serves as the team's guide. Then there is Mr. Smith (Ed Harris), an American who came to Russia looking for work, and Valka (Colin Farrell), a vile criminal willing to stab a fellow inmate in the stomach to steal his sweater. (The only reason Valka is allowed to come along is because he has a knife, a much-needed item if you plan on escaping and surviving in the wilderness.) There is also Irena (Saoirse Ronan), a young girl they encounter along the way who begs to tag along, even though she will likely slow them down and will cost them precious food rations.

None of the other four escapees are developed fully enough to really stand out. They each get one defining characteristic - the artist, the comedian, the religious guy, the one suffering from night blindness. Often times, particularly in the early scenes when they are bundled up in multiple layers in order to stay warm in the snow, it is difficult to tell these four apart. They all just sort of blend into the background most of the time.

As a result, you never really feel emotionally connected to those four characters, which ultimately hurts the film since you are told in the opening scene that only three of the eight will actually make it to India. When characters do end up dying, at times the deaths lack emotional resonance, especially if you have to take a moment to wonder, "Which guy was that again?"

Another strange thing about the film is that there never seems to be much tension in the group. At times the characters disagree on what the next step in their journey should be and there is a general distrust of Valka, but mostly everyone gets along perfectly and no one really complains. Similarly, when characters die, the survivors are sad in the moment, but seem to rebound from it quickly and simply move on. Perhaps they are just internalizing it all, steeling themselves in order to keep going. But whatever the case may be, you never really get a sense of the emotional toll this expedition is taking on them, which hurts the film.

You do, however, get a sense of the physical toll. The characters end up traveling in both extremes in terms of climate - first they must escape through the snow, then through the desert. You see them battle frostbite, then heatstroke. Ultimately, they must cross the Himalayas in order to reach India. They run out of food and water along the way. Faces blister, feet swell up. The physical pain is right there on the screen and it will make you squirm. The effects used to accomplish these physical ailments are flawlessly done.

Director and co-writer Peter Weir also makes a few odd storytelling decisions along the way. Two scenes that seem like they would be pivotal - the actual escape from the gulag and the final trek through the Himalayas - barely get any screen time. They seem like they would be two of the most interesting parts of the story to tell, but instead they are quickly glossed over, which makes no sense. There is also an bizarre montage at the end chronicling the fall of Soviet Russia that seemed out of place and didn't really match the tone of the rest of the film.

And, while most films based on a true story give you a little blurb at the end letting you know what happened to the characters between the time the film was set and the present day, for some reason Weir decides to forgo this convention, which is disappointing. I would have really liked to know what ended up happening to the surviving members of the group once they achieved freedom.

Still, there are some great moments in The Way Back, some that will stay with you long after the film is over. What these prisoners went through is a captivating story, one that is definitely worth telling. Unfortunately, the movie as a whole never quite lives up to these moments and never fully captures the amazing story of survival and freedom it is based on.