No doubt walking the Camino is a wonderful, life-changing experience. Since medieval times people have trekked more than 700 km across northern Spain on this trail with religious origins that now draws sightseers and soul-searchers from all over the world. While this documentary makes a genial attempt to bring that profundity to screen, it does so with a heavy footfall.
The “Six Ways” of the title refers to six modern-day pilgrims from Denmark, Canada, the US, France, Portugal and Brazil/UK. They hobble through blisters and tendonitis, weighed down by backpacks and the shadows of the lives they’ve temporarily abandoned.
The cast are well-selected and good company as they dish up bumper-sticker wisdom gleaned on the road but their sketchy backstories and the baggy narrative prevent any strong emotional connections to their mission. The most effecting is an older man mourning the death of his wife. “This day is what I have now. There are no guarantees about tomorrow,” he says.
We’ve already taken a walk for emotional health this year with the Reese Witherspoon vehicle Wild, based on the memoir by Cheryl Strayed who hiked up the West Coast of the States. Walking the Camino is a beautiful travelogue that will resonate with those who have or want to take the pilgrimage, but as a piece of cinema advocating the transformative power of motion, I’d take the road with a little more dramatic licence.
‘Walking the Camino: Six Ways to Santiago’ Movie Times
