Saoirse Ronan is back on the big screen in a film about the endurance of the human spirit. The Way Back is a travel tour-de-force.

Rating: Null/10 (17 May 2011)

Saoirse Ronan has got to be one of the busiest young actresses in Hollywood, and it's well deserved. Coming off her best supporting actress nomination a few years ago at the Oscars for Atonement, she's gone from strength to strength. She starred alongside Michelle Pfeiffer in I could never be your Woman, with Bill Murray and Tim Robbins in City of Ember, and an incredibly creepy Stanley Tucci in The Lovely Bones. This week she's starring alongside Ed Harris and Colin Farrell in the escape film The Way Back.
After being accused of espionage in Russia during the height of communism, Zoran (Dragos Balkur) finds himself wrongfully imprisoned in a gulag in the heart of Siberia, his only thoughts ones of escape. At the gulag he meets Valka (Farrell), a thug and gangster with a knife that Zoran needs to escape. He also enlists Mr. Smith (Ed Harris), the only American in the gulag, to help with the escape and together with a few others they manage to break free from the gulag, but that's only the start of the story. From there they need to travel, on foot, thousands of miles into India, the only communist free country anywhere near them. Ronan stars as Irena, a Russian girl the escapees pick up along the way.
This is a moving film, based on a true story, told beautifully by Peter Weir, the director. The locations are gorgeous. From the harsh snow covered trees of Siberia, a terrifying blizzard blowing through the trees, to the stark, barren landscape of the deserts between Russia and China as they travel over the sand. The viewer gets the full brunt of the harsh conditions these men needed to survive to get to safety. The performances are also great. From Balkur's performance as a man that needs to escape inescapable odds to right a wrong he didn't even admit, to Farrell's scary performance as a killer and psychopath that loves the people who put him in the prison he finds himself in. Ronan is great as a girl that gets help from men that shouldn't be able to give it. She has the right balance of vulnerability and strength to make her great to watch.
All in all, this is great inspirational movie that anyone that who enjoys a good prison escape film should watch, and keep a close eye out; Saoirse is in a second film hitting the big screen soon, Hanna, the action, thriller co-starring Cate Blanchett and Eric Bana comes out May 27th.

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