The intro is a lot of fun. Our reluctant narrator (the cellist) restarts his verbal description of the Camino de Santiago three times. Each attempt is echoed in the visual, with a step by step restart of the hike past the Camino trailhead. Unfortunately, he hands over the honors and the description in Spanish goes far too long and ironically repetitive. This tedious exposition eventually gives way to a superior, much more beautiful and artistic audio painting of the path ahead. A collage of voices of individual pilgrims and their personals reasons for walking the path ghostly weave in and out of the audio track while beautiful visuals roll on screen. This collage lasts only a minute or so – I could have listened to it for 10.

The film hosts rich, lush landscape cinematography; however, more aggressive editing would have been welcomed. The wine-drinking scenes needn't have been revisited, and some beautiful shots held long became stale. That said, many many beautiful shots remained fresh. I absolutely did not get bored watching the wind making Van Gogh strokes through fields of various shades of green.

Of course the cello music is sure to please. And I greatly enjoyed the audience reaction shots. They're intimate, personal and generous to individuals. The filmmakers capture how each individual listened/engaged with the musician.

I applaud Dane Johansen for being open, honest, and vulnerable as he reflects on his own intentions, aims, lessons. His voice-over musings are mostly engaging. Ultimately though, the film's journey doesn't quite crescendo, it simply fades out.

-- Books by Author/Illustrator Ross Anthony --