The director of Master and Commander, Peter Weir marked his “way back” to the big screen after 7 years with….The Way Back! In this true story he brings to life a journey of seven men escaping from a Soviet prison in Siberia. Each having a desire for freedom, which for me wasn’t exploited well enough. They cross the icey wintery conditions of Siberia, through the mouth-drying desert, and then up the never-ending Himalayas into India. The leader of the group is a quiet but confident Polish named Janusz (Jim Sturgess), he is confident in his route and leads the rest.

Although the acting by most of the cast members was good, I feel as if the director didn’t go deep into the story itself. The character building was dry, there was no gripping sentimentality, and no emotions in the characters for the audience to even consider how to feel. When an audience member goes to cinema to watch some sort of drama they expect some sort of emotion to be felt, either anger, sentiment, happiness, relief for the characters, etc. In The Way Back there was none of this, which hugely disappointed me.

Colin Farrell plays a prison gangster called Valka, who needs to escape due to the huge debts he owes  the other thugs. He plays his role very well, I think these are the roles we love to see him play and suit him well, thuggish and ruggish, showing no mercy. Others were Ed Harris, who plays an American named Mr. Smith, I still don’t know why he was in prison, maybe I missed it, but thats my point about character building, no-one really catches your eye that makes you want to go home and research them, as it is a true story. The actual story is from the author Slavomir Rawicz, a Polish Lieutenant, accused for spying. He wrote in his memoirs of this journey, which has been disputed.

Although the cinematography was good, the film itself could have been made much better in my opinion, they could’ve made it a lot more thrilling and brutal, but instead went for a less action and more dull approach.