The Way Back - Post Release

I found the opening act far too Edward Zwicky. Once winter ends in Siberia, The Way Back transforms into a much different, less conventional, and far better movie.

The Gobi crossing felt like a devastating but beautiful ten hours. I'm sure most reviewers will tell you how thirsty this sequence made them. I think it's Weir's most straightforward and unambiguous movie, but it's great at transferring the palpable sense of being lost in a post-WWII nightmare.

I liked much of the cinematography and epic feel of the journey, but beyond Harris, Ronan, Strong, and Ferrell, the rest of the cast is essentially undistinguishable. And that's a big problem when you're trying to invest emotionally in whether a character makes it or not, because there's not much to hang onto intellectually.

Enough worked that I can say that it's worth seeing, but I think it's definitely towards the bottom of Weir's filmography.

As soon as they get to the business of walking (and that, once they get outside of Russia), this becomes something bordering on grand. It's beautiful to look at, lush cinematography makes even the Gobi fucking desert seem incredible. But the set up and introduction feels so badly mishandled, too hurried. I could not distinguish between the characters much of the time (save for the 'names') and the first part of the journey felt like a day hike in the woods that went horribly, horribly wrong. Picks up steam near the end, and Ronan's death was touching and wonderfully handled, but it all felt like too little, too late at that point.

I became engaged to the film once the girl enters the frame, and the gobbi sequence was majestic.  I felt like the ending paid off, but most of the actual movie was a bit boring.  Narratively its subdued which I guess is cool, but I couldn't really get into any of the characters, other than somewhat with the main dude, Harris' character, and of course the girl.  I hope the girl is actually part of the true story, otherwise, it would be a weird break from fidelity to reality considering they missed a lot of narrative opportunities.

This movie reminds me of Never Let Me Go, in its slow burner subdued take on an interesting premise.  Although, that film(NLMG) was far more succesfull with what it was trying to do, I believe.  

Just watched this and while I agree it's not top Weir, I disagree with the reasons presented above.

The first half of the film establishes all the characters, gets them out of the Gulag in a realistic (that is, not necessarily exciting manner in terms of cinema, but realistic), and gets them out of Siberia. I think the fact that we don't know these people until the second half is intentional. They don't know each other, why should we? In fact the only information about anyone except Janusz we get is from their own words, or from Irena. We start to know the backstories only because Irena worms it out them, and that's also the point where they become less desperate escapees to nowhere and more human beings sharing a journey.

I also feel the pacing of the film is intended to make us feel the long journey, not just process it intellectually. I'd say it succeeds in that, but at the cost of being perceived as "boring" by some.

Things I didn't like: the cliched dialogue at times made me think I was watching an Ed Zwick movie. "Tastes just like chicken" Har har. The minute they realized they were being followed I knew by who (generally) and what function that character would play. Weir is better than that.

Also, I really wish Weir had ended the film with the remaining travelers in India. That coda was way too sentimental and on the nose for this film. I'd rather we leave the travelers still walking, maybe not sure where they'll end up, but with hope that they'll wind up somewhere better. The ending as is shows me that Weir has stopped trusting his audience, unless the Studio and/or producers mandated it.

I was really impressed with the talent on display here. I'd say Ed Harris, Colin Farrel and Saorise Ronan (the chick) share the MVP honors, but everyone does well. Definetly worth a look.