The Way Back - Sometimes it isn't "all about the journey"

I allowed myself to get talked into watching this last Sunday evening, the warning signs were there for me, but I didn't take heed.  Here is a film that apparently only came out in 2010, starring Colin Farrell, Saoirse Ronan, Ed Harris and Mark Strong, directed by Peter Weir (The Truman Show, Gallipoli) - but that I had never heard of.  You would think that I would have heard of a film with such an interesting cast and director?  But no.  I usually assume that films I've not heard of by now are probably rubbish, sadly this time I didn't trust my instincts and sat down for a dreary 2 hour slog.

The Way Back tells the 'true' story of a group of men who broke out of a Soviet gulag during the second world war.  Realising that to stay put would mean recapture, torture and possible death, their only way out was to escape the USSR completely.  Reasonable plan I'm sure you'll agree, but knowing that travelling west would only put them into the hands of Nazi Germany and that to the east lay endless wilderness, they decided to walk to India.  Seriously.  They crossed Russia, Mongolia, the Gobi desert and the Himalayas to eventually end up in British-controlled India and freedom.  This is an astonishing story of hardship and perseverance, it's hard to believe that it really happened (and according to the internet, there is some dispute over the truth of the claims).

So how on earth does a story that sounds this epic end up being a lame duck of a film.  Well there are a number of reasons, the main one being that the screen-writer seems to think that the old adage "It's all about the journey" provides a carte-blanche to ignore all the trappings of traditional storytelling. All the moments of the film that should either be set-pieces or dramatic turning points are glossed over.  We never actually get to see them escaping the gulag, they're just talking about it then in the next scene they're on the run through the snow.  We never get to see them crossing the Himalayas, they're approaching it, then they talk to some Sherpas, then they're in the Indian foothills.

That wouldn't be the end of it though if the characters were at least a little interesting.  But everyone's far too busy trying to stay alive to be bothered with social interaction.  The addition of Saoirse Ronan to the cast is a very obviously an attempt to shoe-horn in a female character.  Usually she's excellent, here though you can hear her Irish accent slipping through the Russian façade.  "It's all about the journey" is being taken far too literally here.  With very little in terms of character development, the journey isn't that interesting.  Then if you skip over any potential action scenes and have no romance or inter-group dynamic going on, you lose any drama.  Once you've done that all you've got left is a bunch of weary people trekking through the hills, plains and deserts of central Eurasia.  It's like a really boring Michael Palin travelogue.

In my opinion it's never a complete waste of time to watch a film, so I guess by that logic I made the right choice in deciding to watch The Way Back.  But apart from that there isn't anything else good to say about this film.  It'll get no recommendation out of me.