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THU
Colin Ferrell in The Way Back
The Wanderers
RED
7:25
The long and winding road of The Way Back
THE WAY BACK: Directed by Peter Weir. Written
by Weir and Keith Clarke, based on the book The Long
Walk by Slavomir Rawicz. Cinematography, Russell
Boyd. Music, Burkhard Dallwitz. Starring Ed Harris,
Jim Sturgess, Saoirse Ronan, Colin Ferrell, and Dragos
Bucur. Newmarket Films, 2010. PG-13. 133 minutes.
44211
O
ther than perhaps Stanley
Kubrick, director Peter Weir
is modern cinema’s polymath,
a man capable of moving freely across
genres while never breaking a sweat.
Weir, after establishing the Australian
New Wave with Picnic at Hanging Rock
(1975) and Gallipoli (1981), would go
on to create a film résumé as diverse and
critically acclaimed as anyone in the past
thirty years. With such films as Witness,
Dead Poets Society, The Truman Show and
Master and Commander, he coaxed career-
defining performances from genre actors
(Harrison Ford) and comedians (Robin
Williams and Jim Carrey), receiving no
less than four Academy Award nominations
for Best Director. Visionary and original,
Weir is as close to a sure thing as exists in
movies today, which is why The Way Back
is such a stinging disappointment. It’s an
average film by a director who doesn’t
make average films.
The Way Back opens promisingly
enough. In Siberia in 1939, young Janusz
(Jim Sturgess) is sentenced to a Soviet
prison camp, a place so remote that a
camp guard hisses, “Nature is your jailer.”
Janusz, a former Polish officer, soon falls
into the company of Mr. Smith (Ed Harris),
a secretive American, and Valka (Colin
Ferrell), a dangerous criminal. Along with
four others who, even when taken together,
don’t add up to three dimensions, the men
make a daring escape into the night. I’ve
been chased by a wasp for longer than the
Russians chase the escapees, but no matter:
The former prisoners, wary and exhausted,
head south, where some of them — the film
reveals the death count at the start — will
journey from Mongolia to China to Tibet,
only to arrive at the base of the Himalayas
where they expect India to be.
What draws these men together other
than their distaste for bed lice and gruel, we
never know, because The Way Back is a kept
secret when it comes to motivation. When
the first of them expires only footsteps
from the fire, having gone blind due to
malnutrition, Valka the thief is moved to say
what’s on everybody’s mind — “One less
mouth to feed” — only to inspire looks of
such universal disapproval that a Catholic
nun would blush. Such moments are what
pass for relationships in The Way Back,
where hiding from other people is an act
of survival. The larger problem, however,
is the scenery. Weir and cinematographer
Russell Boyd overplay the breathtaking
backdrops, putting us at ease rather than
on edge and, in the process, dwarfing the
desperate protagonists. Pallid, comfortable
and largely without impact, The Way Back
is a film about risking everything that risks
very little.
A specter of inauthenticity hovers
above The Way Back, and not just because
its source material, a 1956 book, has been
discredited. It’s more the creep of disbelief
one feels while listening to men speaking
English in the remotest part of the world —
not just any English, but English inflected
with a Russian accent, which like the
Boston dialect is distracting even when
delivered to perfection. I kept waiting for
Inigo Montoya to show up in pursuit of
the six-fingered man. The one actor who
turns in a memorable performance is, of
all people, the young Jim Sturgess (Across
the Universe), who disappears into the role
of Janusz, a man obsessed with one day
seeing his wife again.
The Way Back needs more humor and
imagination — and more characters with
people-like qualities. A hero’s villain, Valka
is Ferrell’s toughest role to date; while he
applies himself in the manner of Brad Pitt
in Twelve Monkeys, Ferrell, like Pitt, ends
up pushing too hard toward the character’s
edge. Ed Harris, with his Mt Rushmore
face, all crags and pockets and not an
ounce of fat, is his stoical, dependable self.
But when forced to utter lines like “This
changes everything,” one can’t help but
feel sorry for his wasted effort. Then again,
at least we’d feel something.
ew
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THE RITE (PG-13)
Fri. - Sun.(1130 210) 450 730 1015
THE MECHANIC (R) - ID REQ'D
Fri. - Sun.(1200 230) 515 800 1030
127 HOURS (R) - ID REQ'D Fri. - Sun.(1140 220) 445 735 1020
BLUE VALENTINE - DP (R) - ID REQ'D
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COUNTRY STRONG (PG-13)
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THE MECHANIC R
11:45, 2:15, 4:45, 7:15, 9:45
THE RITE PG13
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NO STRINGS ATTACHED R
11:55, 2:30, 5:05, 7:40, 10:15
THE WAY BACK PG13
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THE GREEN HORNET 3D PG13
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1:45, 4:35, 7:25, 10:15
THE GREEN HORNET PG13
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SEASON OF THE WITCH PG13
11:50, 2:20, 4:55, 7:20, 9:50
TRUE GRIT DIGITAL PG13
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TANGLED PG
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HARRY POTTER AND THE
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GULLIVER’S TRAVELS 3D PG
SPECIAL EVENT PRICING: $2.00
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12:30, 2:40, 4:55, 7:20, 9:30
LOVE AND OTHER DRUGS R
4:30, 9:40
THE NEXT THREE DAYS PG13
12:00, 3:40, 7:00, 10:00
UNSTOPPABLE PG13
12:05, 2:45, 5:05, 7:40, 10:15
BURLESQUE PG13
12:50, 4:10, 7:10, 10:05
DUE DATE R
12:15, 2:35, 5:15, 7:50, 10:25
FASTER (2010) R
12:10, 7:15
MEGAMIND PG
1:35, 3:55, 6:15, 8:35
MEGAMIND 3D PG
SPECIAL EVENT PRICING: $2.00
UPCHARGE ALL TICKETS
12:20, 2:50, 5:10, 7:30, 9:45
THE SOCIAL NETWORK PG13
12:45, 3:50, 7:25, 10:20
LIFE AS WE KNOW IT PG13
12:35, 4:15, 7:35, 10:10
SECRETARIAT PG
12:40, 4:00, 7:05, 9:55
RED PG13
12:25, 3:00, 5:30, 8:00, 10:30
Cinéarts
127 HOURS R
12:45, 3:10, 5:35, 8:00, 10:25
THE KING’S SPEECH R
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BLACK SWAN R
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Times For 01/28 - 01/30 © 2011
EUGENE WEEKLY JANUARY 27, 2011 23