Outside their trappings as the premier awards ceremony for American film, the Oscars are still governed by the same idiosyncratic, unwritten rules as any other industry fixture: If you're the Coen Brothers, you get a nomination. If you've filmed a sobering drama featuring the Holocaust, you get a nomination. And if you don't get your film released in time to get on board the train of media buzz, you go home empty-handed.
Such is the case for Peter Weir's unfortunately timed "The Way Back." This brilliant film will likely be shut out at February's Academy Awards — not because of its content, but because it showed up too late to the game. Awards-season contenders were already crystallizing when the film rolled into theaters Dec. 29. The outcome: one sole nomination for Best Achievement in Makeup. It's a shame, too, because Weir's work here outclasses a clear half of this year's best-picture nominees.
This tale, set on the brink of World War II, is one that distills "man vs. nature" down to its very bones. A band of political prisoners (Jim Sturgess, Ed Harris and Colin Farrell among others), deemed enemies of communist Russia and exiled to Siberia, decide to take back their freedom by literally walking to it, traversing thousands of miles on foot to the Mongolian border.
Unlike the claustrophobic, earth-hewn prison portrayed in Danny Boyle's "127 Hours" (2010) — a film that played the Oscar game more successfully — nature here is a vast, desolate expanse that kills slowly.
The Asiatic terrain poses a challenge not only for the cast but for the filmmakers, too: Even with constantly changing locales, how can Weir keep things interesting, especially when the actors are just walking?
Fortunately for the director, and his audience, the trek incorporates dark and engaging themes. Slowly degrading health, starvation, dehydration and eroding faith — both in one another and the goal of reaching freedom — are the dramatic currents that underpin the seemingly eternal trek.
Though a 90-minute film would seemingly have done a grave disservice to this unbelievable journey, the movie is only a test of endurance for its characters, not its viewers.
The film does an excellent job of featuring the majesty of natural landscapes. The cinematography showcases a splendor in nature that's matched in intensity only by its cruelty to this band of men. Ermine snow, gritty sand and lush wilderness are as beautiful as they are brutal. And as colors change with the seasons, each scene takes on a new life and hue, avoiding the trap of things becoming too static or bleak.
It's a superb reminder that, of all things, a film cannot afford to ignore aesthetics, especially when they play such a key role for both the characters and the story. With the focus so squarely pinned on nature, the actors face the considerable charge of asserting their roles against their overpowering backdrop. They take to the task admirably, adding true emotion to what would otherwise be a gorgeous but plot-less National Geographic travelogue.
Harris, portraying the sole American, turns in a remarkably sensitive performance, tweaking a bit of the hard-edged role he is most often typecast into. His performance is rivaled by lead Sturgess, who offers up a committed, believable portrayal of a Polish man betrayed by the woman closest to him. Farrell, meanwhile, appears to be having the time of his life playing a debt-ridden, knife-toting Russian career criminal — imagine a slightly more addled and gleeful off-kilter version of Viggo Mortensen in "Eastern Promises" (2007).
These broad characterizations aside, the personalities of these walking wounded remain understated yet complex, suggesting that Weir has enough faith in his viewers not to sledgehammer them with acting for acting's sake. If anything, the product is indicative of an agenda that does not cater to the Hollywood standard.
This isn't a film calling out for attention like Darren Aronofsky's "Black Swan" (2010), nor is it ticking off awards-season contender boxes like "The King's Speech" (2010). Is it a better film than those because of it? Well, it's certainly more genuine.
So when the awards roll out with the red carpet later this month and you see "The Way Back" coming up empty, remember — that gold statue isn't everything.
