"The Way" de Emilio Estevez

Tom Avery is an American Doctor Ophtalmologist who lives a comfortable life until he receives a phone call from the French Police telling him of his only son's accidental death on the first leg of the way to Santiago de Compostela. He then travels to France to identify the body, and decides on an emotive impulse to walk the way himself, and starts the pilgrimage dispersing his son's ashes along the 500-mile way.
First he wishes to be alone, he endorses his son's backpack and wants to pay a tribute to his son, to whose choice of quitting gradschool to travel the world without a cellphone he had opposed.
Then he happens to meet different people : Joost, the Dutchman, who walks to lose weight, then the divorcee Canadian girl, who feels regret for abortion, and finally the Irish writer, who finds himself blocked in his writing.

As the group of four walk together, although they seem to have nothing to share, they develop a friendship and begin to open up and talk.
The mystery of the pilgrimage is all the more striking in the Cathedral of Santiago where the hardest heart softens.

Apart from the interest of the film which is undeniable, two or three things are worth mentioning :

Martin Sheen plays the role of the father, and Emilio Estevez the role of the son (who apears from time to time during the journey, at times and places where the father's pride is awakened). They are actually father and son in real-life. E. Estevez is the Director of the film.

For the film Director and team, it was important to shoot inside the Cathedral, and ti wasnot until 48 hours before the shooting that they received the permission to enter the Cathedral, permission is never given to movies. It was, they say, the Providence gift.

The atmosphere of the pilgrimage is exactly as I imagine it, tough and friendly, harsh and pleasant, with lovely surroundings and changing landscapes, with all sorts of weather as well.

The arrival is joyful ; instead of being the end of the pilgrimage, it seems to be the beginning of something new.