Okay, since the destination is preordained, what does the script do en route? Estevez's answer is two-fold: minor episodic adventures + incessantly repeated montages.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Nov 4, 2011

Estevez takes full advantage of the beautiful mountain scenery, dramatic skies and ancient architecture to give us moments of quiet wonder.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 4, 2011

Heartfelt if occasionally plodding.

| Original Score: B- | Oct 21, 2011

With "The Way," writer-director Emilio Estevez has made a respectable failure.

| Original Score: 1/4 | Oct 20, 2011

The Way never arrives anywhere you couldn't see coming a mile away, but it does so with such empathy that its conclusions feel comforting rather than overly predictable.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 14, 2011

"The Way" is overly earnest and clumsily directed by Emilio Estevez (the non-prodigal son of Sheen). Yet it is nonetheless effective in evoking empathy and introspection.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 13, 2011

There is nothing terribly spiritual about the journey for any of these people, and yet the sheer arduousness of the trek, the beauty of the countryside, and the personal revelations that ensue all combine to create a transcendent haze.

| Original Score: B | Oct 7, 2011

"The Way" has the makings of a movie that shouldn't work, but it navigates many of those potential faults with surprising competence.

| Oct 7, 2011

"The Way" might have been a bit more eventful. Still, it's good company.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 7, 2011

A sensuous, expansive hymn to travel and transformation in a movie that honors earthly pleasures as readily as it contemplates higher things.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 7, 2011

There's nothing startlingly original about Estevez's screenplay, yet it has a modesty you seldom see when Hollywood tackles spiritual subjects.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 7, 2011

Estevez does embrace the spiritual and religious elements of his movie. But he's as interested in the journey as the destination.

| Oct 7, 2011

I have no doubt that many viewers will resolve to walk the Camino at some point in their lives after watching the film. Count me among them.

| Original Score: B+ | Oct 7, 2011

At times it has the feel of a television movie but the scenery is spectacular and Estavez has a good sense of timing and a gift for cinematic storytelling.

| Original Score: B | Oct 6, 2011

The father-son dynamic is played just right, Tom's sightings of his deceased son arriving at key moments. If only that resonance carried into the rest of the story's episodic progression.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Oct 6, 2011

Open yourself up to this thoughtful, moving personal adventure and you're in for a uniquely memorable experience.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 6, 2011

Mr. Estevez is both writer and director of this film, and also turns up in a small role, but he gives the spotlight to his father, who makes quite a lot out of a low-key story that could easily have degenerated into mush.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 6, 2011

A heartfelt project, scrappy and engaging, The Way has its way with audiences despite, not because of, its sentimental excess.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 6, 2011

The dialogue in "The Way'' is sincerely platitudinous, and Estevez has less of an idea about where to put the camera than when he started two decades ago. He is - how to put this? - not a good director.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Oct 6, 2011

For all his awkwardness Estevez is undeniably sincere, regarding both people and nature with disarming good will and maintaining a steady, soothing pace that allows the life lessons to resonate.

| Oct 6, 2011