[6]

There’s no director I admire more than Peter Weir (Fearless, Mosquito Coast), even if his latest film left me a tad underwhelmed. The Way Back is about a group of men who escape a Russian labor camp during WWII and risk their lives through thousands of miles of wilderness to find their freedom in neighboring Mongolia. The cast includes Ed Harris and Colin Farrell, but it’s Jim Sturgess (Across the Universe) who inspires and leads them through freezing cold, insufferable heat, starvation, dehydration, and exhaustion. The film is best while the men are joined by young Saoirse Ronan, a fellow fugitive looking for food and protection. I was more struck by the ensemble’s group dynamics, particularly once galvanized by female energy, than I was by the overarching survival narrative, which unfortunately plods toward anti-climax.

Oscar Nomination: Best Makeup