Read my review of The Way and enter to win by Friday, March 2!

I don’t do a lot of movie reviews here. It’s easier for me to read a book than watch a movie. I don’t tend to like watching, well, much of anything. I’d rather read.

The reason I agreed to watch The Way, starring Emilio Estevez and his dad, Martin Sheen, was three-fold:

  1. I read a great interview in Faith & Family  (now Catholic Digest) a few months ago,
  2. a friend of mine insisted I would love it and told me, frankly, to buy it (because I had twisted his arm into purchasing one of our family’s favorites), and
  3. I wanted an easy date night.

I’ve heard and read a lot of great reviews about The Way, but I’ll be honest: I wasn’t sure. I looked at my husband with a bit of trepidation: would this movie be a bomb, a wasted night, a shove-religion-down-your-throat experience?

Let’s get to the bottom line, before you wander away: It was fabulous. Great. Wonderful. I lent it to my mother-in-law immediately, and have been asking her daily (and sometimes more than once a day) if she’s watched it yet. I understand why my friend compared it with a movie we love so much we know all the lines and insisted I purchase it.

The story, in a nutshell: son dies on the Camino de Santiago (“The Way of St. James”), dad goes to identify the body and, much to his own surprise, ends up walking the Camino.

The story itself is moving, but I thought it could get too sentimental. I’ve had brushes with death and experiences with mourning, and I wasn’t keen on crying a lot or feeling all mopey.

No fear: I wasn’t crying during this movie; I was, instead, inspired by The Way. The message it proposes is one of hope.

It’s a story of conversion, without a doubt, and we can all learn lessons from this movie, even as we enjoy it completely. It is beautifully shot, tightly written, and masterfully done.

I’m not a movie reviewer, so I can only speak as someone who can usually read through anything. Not this, though. I didn’t want to miss anything: I was enthralled.

I’ve heard about the Camino on some different SQPN shows (there’s even a podcast devoted to that sort of thing, iPilgrim), so I was familiar with the idea of it. After this movie, maybe I will even add it to that list of things I may just do someday.

I’ll be re-watching this movie for sure. And I’d like to share it with you, too. (Now for the fun part!)

I have three copies of The Way to give away! Here’s what to do to enter by Friday, March 2 (you can enter more than once!):

1. Spread the word about the movie and/or this contest. Each time you tweet, post it on Facebook, blog about it, or hey, tell a friend or colleague about it, you can enter in the comments.

2. Pray a rosary. That’s right: you can enter every time you pray a rosary! (You might wonder what this has to do with the movie. Well, it’s one of my favorite set of scenes, and you’ll just have to watch the movie to find out.)

Can’t wait? The Way is now available in a variety of formats, so purchase away. 🙂