The Way
Acceptable with guidance. Age: 14+. A Catholic review of this movie for parents.
Our review
Tom's grown son dies at the start of a long walk across Spain called the Camino de Santiago. Tom decides to finish the walk for him. Along the way he makes friends and his hard heart starts to soften. This movie is for teens and grown-ups and needs a parent to explain a few things. The film loves the Camino and treats Catholic tradition with respect. Greydanus says it shows how religion roots us in ways vague spirituality cannot. It stops short of faith, though. Tom never clearly returns to the sacraments. He scatters his son's ashes along the route, which the Church does not permit. One pilgrim, Sarah, tells Tom she had an abortion years ago while married to a man who beat her. The film shows her grief over her lost daughter and does not excuse the act, but it does not send her to confession either. A fellow pilgrim uses marijuana throughout and there is a good deal of drinking. It is a kind film and a good conversation starter, not a catechism.
For parents
Rated PG-13. No Catholic classification was retrieved. Common Sense Media says 14 and up, Greydanus says Teens & Up, and Lumen agrees. Things to correct: Tom scatters his son's ashes along the Camino and into the sea. The Church permits cremation when it is not chosen to deny the resurrection of the body (CCC 2301). The 2016 instruction Ad resurgendum cum Christo requires that the ashes be laid to rest in a sacred place such as a cemetery or church (n. 5) and does not permit scattering them in the air, on land or at sea (n. 7). Explain why: the body will rise. One pilgrim smokes marijuana often and it is played for laughs. One pilgrim, Sarah, had an abortion years ago. Common Sense Media says she reveals that she reluctantly 'terminated' a pregnancy. Plugged In quotes her: 'I got rid of my baby girl, Tom. Sometimes I hear her voice, my baby.' She did it out of fear of a husband who beat her. The film shows it as a wound she still carries, calls the child her baby, and does not defend the act. It also never names it as a sin or points her to confession. Tell your teens the truth: human life must be protected from conception, and abortion is a grave evil (CCC 2270-2271). Tell them too that God's mercy waits for every mother in the sacrament of Penance. A Romani boy steals Tom's pack and the boy's father makes him bring it back. Ask: what is a pilgrimage for? Tom refuses to pray at the start. What changes by Santiago? Is being moved in a cathedral the same as faith? What would a full return to the Church look like for Tom?