Movie: The Way Back

There has been nothing on for weeks, not even a decent Christmas film so I’ve decided I’m going to see at least one film this bank holiday weekend.Obviously there is the smattering of expected kiddie movies – none especially Christmassy, the unwatchable Rom-Com and two prison break out movies. None of these in my faves box but I go for 'The Way Back'.If it’s about the journey after the break out and it’s a 12a so how gruesome can it be? I imagined it to be more about the friendships forming over weeks and months of trekking across the world so I was not disappointed. In fact it is thankfully even less gory than I feared.Based on a true story, it’s about a group of convicts, mostly those who have been set up and wrongly accused in the break out of world war 2. What I always find amazing in these films as they all have native names, Polish, American, Russian etc and speak with accents but they all speak in perfect English and communicate well together. However I say that having just come back from a week in Italy and being able to communicate just fine, them in Italian and me in English. That should not detract from what is very good film, all the more so because it’s based on real happenings (the book, ‘The Long Walk’). The Pole, (Jim Sturgess) is new at the prison in Siberia. ‘It’s not the guns and guards that keep you imprisoned here, its nature’ says the guard referring to the extreme cold not to mention wild animals outside the prison confines.It’s not long before the new boy is leading the escape, amidst repeated hallucinations of seeing his front door back home in Poland. He is forced to take bad boy real Russian criminal (Colin Farrell) although handy as he is the only on with a knife but partners up with the token American (Ed Harris – brilliant). Seven of them set out to escape harsh Siberia but how many make it through to Nepal and then onto India?Mark Strong was apparently in it? Didn’t see him and I’m pretty sure they still rolled him out to do promotional interviews. An ace actor.‘The Way Back’ is a really well made film that may be a tad too long (133 minutes) but has you at the edge of your seat most of the time.I’m only marking it down half point as it’s not my kind of film but it is good.7½/10   Smile factor 2/10 (the odd joke)[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Jlgenq_Ca0&fs=1&hl=en_GB]