A few weeks ago, I was in South Dakota. In unpleasantly cold temperatures and under a clearish blue sky, I stood on a balcony and beheld the Crazy Horse Memorial. It’s one thing to Google a picture of the sculpture, the one slowly carved from the side of a mountain that’s been a work in progress since 1948. To see it in the rocky flesh, so to speak, is another experience entirely.

As I stood there, freezing my ass off, two things occurred to me. The first is that I’ll likely be dead before the sculpture of Crazy Horse is completed. By the year 2037, part of the head of his horse, along with Crazy Horse’s hand, arm, and shoulder should be completed. The second thing was in a picture I took. Next to Crazy Horse’s massive profile, a head that’s eighty-seven feet high, was a little yellow blob. I had to zoom in to learn that the aforementioned blob was a truck.

If I had arrived at the memorial earlier or later, I might have missed that moment of scale. Would my absence have mattered to the sculpture, or to Crazy Horse himself? Unlikely.* But there’s something about travel, about being in an unfamiliar place that can affect one’s emotions and jar loose memories. That’s part of what the thoughtful indie drama A/way digs into, and does so with intelligence and heart.

Anna (Rosie McDonald) has arrived in Martinique. She’s a travel writer on assignment, and she has some very specific ideas for her piece. She’ll talk to some of the locals, get a sense of who they are, and tie their experiences into information about Martinique as a whole. It’s a good idea, and unfortunately, her editor isn’t interested. She tells Anna they have a format that must be followed, one that likely is at least ninety-eight percent fluff. 

Anna agrees to follow the format…and talks to the locals anyway. From the philosophical surfer to the improv performer to the local artisan, Anna learns about them. One has moved back to Martinique from London to care for her father. One glories in making art from native ferns, and revels in the unpredictability of the process. One muses to her that he can’t wrap his mind around a destiny for himself, and maybe it doesn’t matter. Anna needs to hear all of it.

It’s because her mother (Eva Dorrepaal) has died. Losses are never easy, yet this one has hit Anna particularly hard. Interspersed between her time in Martinique, we see Anna with her brutally honest BFF Tori (Mckenzie Salvatierra-Custin), a potential romance with Geoff (Aaron Lee Wright), and a critically important encounter with Irene (Irene Bremis). A journal written by Anna’s mother was kept for years by Irene, and now she passes it to Anna. It might act as a soothing balm to her wounded heart, and help her reach an accord with her grief.

I’m already a sucker for movies like Wild, The Darjeeling Limited, In Bruges, and Into the Wild, where people are irrevocably changed through the power of travel. In a time when people are more gullible and xenophobic than ever, this sub-genre is necessary.** Director Derek Shane Garcia understands that, and has made a low-key gem of a film. In his scenes shot in Martinique, he wisely utilizes the island’s natural beauty to boost the film’s production values. More importantly, he takes his time with his scenes. A/way is a character piece, and within the film’s shockingly efficient sixty-seven minute run time, Garcia shows us everything we need to know about who Anna is.

Garcia is aided by a perceptive script, which he’s co-written with Rosie McDonald and James Moccia. The dialogue rarely feels written. It’s the kind of script where you can imagine the writers eavesdropping on a conversation and frantically writing everything down. The characterizations are also on point. Everyone from Anna, the supporting players, and those appearing in single scenes feel like flawed, real people. 

Rosie McDonald carries the film as Anna. It might sound a little counterintuitive, but “normal people” roles tend to be tricky, and require a delicate touch. Here, we should see where Anna started from, how she’s been blown off track by life and deaths, and how she behaves when she reaches forks in the road. McDonald makes all of that happen in a performance that’s subtle and skillful. She’s well supported by the rest of the cast, and one I’d like to linger on a moment is Eva Dorrepaal as Anna’s mother. Dorrepaal’s performance mostly consists of non-verbal acting or narration from the journal. I understand the decision made, but I wished that Dorrepaal had another scene or two to dig into. Watch her scene with McDonald where she talks about death as her next great experience, and how the two actors tell us so much about these people with relatively little dialogue. It’s strong work that deserved slightly more of a showcase.

Travel changes me every single time I do it. It will change you, and more often than not, for the better. A/way grasps that concept with intelligence, style, and soul. This jewel of a film knows that when the luggage is packed and you step outside your comfort zone, you’re actually expanding it.

*I also learned that not all of the Lakota Sioux support the existence of the memorial. There’s belief that it’s less a tribute to the man and his people and more a tribute to the family of the original sculptors.

**A modern classic about this very subject is “Travel As a Political Act” by Rick Steves. Read it and make yourself a smarter human.

Tim Brennan Movie Critic

Tim has been alarmingly enthusiastic about movies ever since childhood. He grew up in Boulder and, foolishly, left Colorado to study Communications in Washington State. Making matters worse, he moved to Connecticut after meeting his too-good-for-him wife. Drawn by the Rockies and a mild climate, he triumphantly returned and settled down back in Boulder County. He's written numerous screenplays, loves hiking, and embarrassed himself in front of Samuel L. Jackson. True story.