, a masterful epic which featured Russell Crowe fighting against both a superior opponent and the ever present dangers of the high seas. Weir's firm grasp on large scale tests of the human spirit is once again at play in The Way Back, trading the wide open expanse of the oceans for thousands of miles of snow and sand. Based on Slavomir Rawicz's highly disputed 1956 memoir, The Long Walk
, Jim Sturgess(Across the Universe
) stars as a Polish POW held captive in a Russian gulag around 1941. Along with a stone faced American(Ed Harris), a criminal(Colin Farrell), and a few others they make a daring escape from their confines, only to discover that the prison itself was hardly their true captor, nature is. Trapped in enemy territory, with literally nothing but harsh elemental extremes and no civilization for thousands of miles, they begin a grueling, treacherous walk towards freedom. And walk they do...and walk..and walk...there's so much walking I stayed to see if Peter Jackson had a co-writing credit. The setup sounds like it was ripped straight from a Werner Herzog playbook, as this motley crew is embroiled in the ages long battle between man and mother nature. The pursuing Russians are never really a factor, so this isn't a cat and mouse affair. It's solely about their arduous journey, and putting aside aside their many differences in order to survive it. Eventually joined by a mysterious girl in a similar predicament(the always excellent Saoirse Ronan), it isn't long before exhaustion, starvation, and the harsh conditions begin to take their toll.
Whether this story is actually true doesn't matter. It's whether or not it translates well to the screen, and unfortunately all the gorgeous cinematography in the world can't make up for bland characters. We're never given a reason to care about most of the people on this journey, and the few who have personality don't stick around nearly long enough. Its' a shame because Jim Sturgess is surprisingly strong as their earnest "leader", and Ed Harris has the rugged cowboy routine down pat. Saoirse Ronan provides a jolt of youthful energy the film was sorely lacking(you didn't realize it until she showed up). Colin Farrell could've done without the awful accent(I think that was Russian?), otherwise he's the one real source of comedy the flick has to offer. Weir shoots the film in a way that shows off nature's true power and dominance over these people, with their many casualties never shied away from by the camera. The unflinching tone of their quest is blunted by an attempt to wrap everything up in a nice neat happy bow, which might've worked if we'd gotten to know these characters more along the way.
