Sorry, I didn't cry

Rating: 6/10 (9 June 2011)

The Way Back is the story of a a group of prisoners breaking out of a siberian Gulag and walking across Siberia, Mongolia, China and Tibet, an epic journey of 4000 km to reach freedom in India. Its one of those movies you don't want to miss out on seeing. The cast is wonderful, and the cinematography is breathtaking. Exotic and grandiose shooting locations contrast nicely with the all-too human struggle for survival of the characters.
There are no specific flaws in this movie that you can point out and say,"There! Thats where they screwed up". No, but the movie somehow leaves you unsatisfied in the end. Its not about what the movie did wrong, but there were so many places where it missed out, where it could have transcended the gap between Good and Fantastic. For one, the characters seemed to mould into one another, there wasn't much to tell them apart, you could have easily switched the back-stories of any two characters and it wouldn't have made a difference. As such, there was no emotional bond you form with any of them, deaths hardly matter to the audience. There have been movies where a character dying would break the heart of the viewer, but here it barely registers.
Also, it hardly brings out the true nature of suffering. Apart from the extensive make-up and the occasional staggering-and-falling, there is not much of an indication of the physical toll and mental trauma that a person would go through in such a circumstance. As such, when they do finally make it to their destination, the happiness that the viewer feels is short-lived and minor.
A Way Back reads more like a documentary. It doesn't manage to pull off the human side of it. One movie which had so much potential, I would be glad if there's a remake, by a better director and cast.