THE WAY
Most of us
will analyze Tom because he is the protagonist of the story and the theme of
this movie is around him, well, I’ll like to analyze him to but because is an
interesting character whose attitude I’m familiar with. Well, to begin, Tom is
probably an ordinary American, a doctor from California and I think he is not a
bad man. The opening scenes of the film show him dealing kindly with a patient
at his ophthalmology practice. Tom is totally devoted to his work and his
patients and looks upon himself as a responsible adult. He loves his son,
Daniel, though he drives him crazy with what Tom thinks is his lack of
direction and drive. The conflict between father and son is like. In a
flashback, the movie shows Daniel deciding not to finish his PhD, a choice that
his father puts down to his son’s irresponsibility. Daniel goes off with his
backpack and a pocketful of maps to see the world. Tom wants to protect his son
as he protects himself, keeping him safe, walled high around with the rules,
with PhDs, jobs and health insurance. He fears life, and fears for his son.
In a lot of
senses, this story is not about religion, but spirituality, and though Tom is a
believer, he does not trust God. But God was calling Tom, and when Daniel is
killed by bad weather in the Alps, he goes to France to collect his body and
realizes he can no longer resist that call, though he does not yet recognize
the voice. He goes to
France to collect Daniel’s remains and he learns about the Camino, the
pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, a route taken for centuries by people
looking for different things, meaning, forgiveness, health or just adventure.
Tom takes a leap of faith, and decides to walk the Camino, though he does not
really know why.
And then the
journey begins.. All the people Tom meets along “The Way” treat him kindly, the
policeman who calls him to France from his golf game, his fellow walkers, everyone.
But Tom’s heart is closed to them all. He is an adult, in an adult’s world.
There can be no room in the adult world for the child of God, protected and
loved by God. Tom keeps his inner child of God carefully enclosed and protects
him himself, without God’s help, he feels strong enough to handle every
situation, even loss.
Along The
Way, Tom tries to walk the route while keeping his heart locked, but he is
thrown together with three others who are, in their own ways, equally damaged. I
think that Tom has a special relationship with Sarah, they have this connection
in which sometimes they can get along well and some others they can’t stand
each other, in fact the interactions between Tom and Sarah are particularly complex and moving.
Probably, some of the film's most moving moments come in the interplay between
these two. As we learn more about Sarah and her reasons for walking the Camino,
we not only understand her character better but also why these two people are
well suited to understand and help each other. Grief and sorrow often gather
those who feel it from others; words of sympathy grate when we feel those
expressing them cannot truly understand what we are going through. When Sarah
finally shares a difficult part of her past with Tom and only with him, it is
one of the more powerful moments in the film because the emphasis in the story
is less on what she did than on the devastating emotional consequences of her
actions.
To conclude, Tom Avery is a very interesting character. I
think that in a lot of senses we can find ourselves in him because we try to
overcome things without help, because we believe we are strong enough to bear
all the difficulties of life, and even if we believe in God or not, we don’t
even like to look for help in other people, and that superiority complex that
we have, eventually brings us more suffering. I’ll like to see what happens to
Tom in the end of the movie, to see if he recovers, if he finally finds what he
is seeking or maybe finds something he deserve but he wasn’t looking for it. He
became like the father or the paternal symbol of the group, he can guide them,
maybe he’ll find in them comfort, and the bravery to recognize that he made a
lot of mistakes within the relationship with Daniel due to fear.
