A Very Ambitious Film

Rating: 7/10 (9 June 2014)

Mostly with this site I just vote 1 to lower the vote the most I can or vote 10 to heighten it the most I can but in this case I feel compelled to vote fairly.
The Way Back was a very ballsy film that fell sadly short in many ways. The caricatureish aspects of many of the characters made it less believable and sometimes the acting felt a little hollow. The makeup was consistently great and gave the impression of the ravages the environment was doing. Pacing was a little inconsistent, when they escaped hardly a deal was made of it and it just sort of happened without build-up, along with a variety of other scenes that seemed abrupt. I like how low they sometimes resort, when they are eating the wolves' kill raw and drinking water out of mud I got a very strong impression of how much they were willing to do but you rarely see psychological results, they are beaten done, but they never seem shaken or disturbed by the ordeal, just very very tired, and sometimes even that doesn't increase over time, how the old man was about to give up and then didn't was a bit silly. My biggest problem for bullshit was the bit where the girl died and she went out without a whimper, just laying down at a convenient time and dying, she would suffer under those conditions and by those causes, dehydration is not a peaceful way to die. The movie could have done with being an hour longer in terms of character development and less images of scenery with sort-of dramatic and samey music, and the way it took so long to leave Russia and then they were through Mongolia and Tibet with ease, culminating in events with feet on them to show the remainder. Now I understand they couldn't have shown the whole journey but it was pretty sloppily done. By extension it needed a far larger budget and Colin Farrell's Russian accent was weak. I also consider the fact there was no sexual aspect to the group and the female incredibly historically inaccurate considering general views of women, things that were happening in the world at the time and the sheer mental deterioration that would result from such a trip.
All in all this was a very ambitious film, I was impressed, it was damn sentimental, poorly paced and could have done with more financial oomph but it's rare to see a film try such an ambitious mode of storytelling, journeys are rarely done well and rarely attempt truth to the harsh realities of travelling by foot in much of the world, but this film tried, and it didn't quite survive the trip.