The Way | Film review

Seven years of playing the commander-in-chief on The West Wing have taught Martin Sheen a thing or two about shouldering a heavy burden. The actor brings a little Bartlet-worthy gravitas to The Way, which casts him as a shell-shocked father traveling to France to retrieve the body of his deceased adult son (actual offspring Emilio Estevez, who also wrote and directed). Once there, the old man resolves to finish what his boy started: “El camino de Santiago,” a lengthy on-foot pilgrimage to northwest Spain. Saddling Sheen with a trio of quirky companions, Estevez reduces this real-life journey—completed by thousands of tourists and locals every year—to a scenic, episodic group therapy session. Grieve Pray Love would have been a better title.