Farrell Finds Way

There’s nothing I love more than a good escape movie. Clearly the benchmark is THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, and I don’t think there has been one to match it since. The next contender has to be Peter Weir’s THE WAY BACK, about a group of soldiers who engineered a grueling escape from a Siberian gulag in 1942. Weir wrote the script himself, based on the memoir by Slavomir Rawicz.

Colin Ferrell, who will be competing for a globe this Sunday, has signed on to play tough, tattooed Russian. Ed Harris will play an American; and Jim Sturgess portrays a young Polish inmate. Saoirse Ronan, whose star continues to skyrocket, will play a Russian on the run who meets up with the fugitives. Thankfully for her, this film is not a porno.