TMG Scale 10.0 P Factor 1.0 (but it fits the movie) MPAA Rating: PG ?
Starring Martin Sheen, Emilio Estevez
“But Oz never did give nothin to the Tin Man, that he didn’t, didn’t already have.” That America classic kept ringing in my head as I watched this film. Did writer/director Estevez really intend to plant that song in my mind? Yes. Indeed he did.
Art and Joy typically do not preview movies. We like to see them when the masses see them. It is not our job or mission to create an audience for a film, rather to comment upon it. This time, we made an exception. This movie does not hit wide release until October 7. Trust TMG, it is worth waiting for. [Nancy Besa is sort of the media and PR person to everyone important in the world…and she got me into a pre-release party at AMC Studio 30 in Kansas with Sheen and Estevez. Why Sheen and Extevez did all the local, cheesy TV talk shows and did not stop in to see Art and Joy is a real disappointment…for Sheen and Estevez of course.]
Tom (Sheen), an American father travels to France to recover the body of his estranged son Daniel (Estevez) who died while walking the The El Camino de Santiago from France to Spain. Daniel died on his first day in a storm while hiking the famous, 450 mile trail. Tom decides to take the journey for his son and scatter his ashes along the way. He fortuitously meets up with three other souls in search of something. One who claims he is just trying to lose weight. Another trying to write a successful novel, and a women who claims she is on a mission to quit smoking. The four of them keep bumping into each other literally , intellectually and spiritually along the trail. Life is lived along the way. Wine is consumed. Friends are made. Perhaps even the meaning of life itself unveiled a bit. After all, as the son once admonished the father, “you don’t choose a life, you live one.”
Indeed life is not about the end of the road, it is about the journey. How refreshing to see such a quality film about such quality ideals. Run, do not walk to see this film. More later. . .