Sr Helena and I attended last night's screening of the new Emilio Estevez/Martin Sheen movie, "The Way." The father and son duo are making a road trip across the country in a special bus (Sheen joked that they don't have a typical Hollywood marketing budget for the film, but they do have a $40,000 bus); this is a project that depends on word of mouth (or pen of blogger) for its promotion.
I didn't know what to expect, but (as I wrote earlier this week) I was interested in it just because of the topic. I didn't expect the movie to be as intelligent, inspiring and truly entertaining as it turned out to be. This is a rare bird of a Hollywood film, with enough meat on its bones to bear watching two or three times, and no scenes that would require a nun to avert her eyes. There's a lot to talk about, making it ideal for groups. There's no getting away from its Catholic ethos. And it really does have its laugh-out-loud moments, proving that you can be smart and funny at the same time in a "spiritual" movie.
Go see it. (It should appear in theaters in October.) Recommend it to your friends. Heck, take out an ad in your parish bulletin and promote it (or at least ask your parish secretary to put a little something in the bulletin).
Sr Helena introduced Estevez and Sheen for the Q&A session after the movie, but then didn't actually get any time to meet them! I taped the Q&A, but it will need a bit of work before I post it here (check back tomorrow).
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