As a Catholic film reviewer, the argument could be made that a film like Buen Camino (2025) would be required viewing for me.  For those who may be unaware, the title does not simply mean “good walk” in Spanish, although this is an Italian movie.  What the title refers to is the Camino de Santiago, or the “way of St. James,” the saint being one of the twelve apostles and is buried in Santiago, Spain.  It is a centuries old pilgrimage that people still do today.  The city is the traditional end of the journey, and that word is a good one to describe this particular piece of cinema.  “Strange” must be added, too, because there are some inexplicable moments alongside the divine.  This one should be interesting, if nothing else.

The only thing Checco Zalone (as himself?) is interested in from the start of Buen Camino is getting through a colonoscopy.  It is his daughter, Cristal (Letizia Arnó), who narrates how he has ended up in this predicament.  Rather, I should have started this synopsis that the only thing Checco is interested in is himself.  He is the mega-wealthy heir to a successful shipping company, and he spends his father’s money on luxury everything.  He is being interviewed by an American magazine while preparing for his 50^th birthday extravaganza, the celebration being Egyptian pharaoh themed.  He has homes in practically every country, a girlfriend who is half his age, and more money than he knows how to spend.  During their discussion the interviewer notices pictures of a younger Cristal on the wall, but he thinks she is looking at one of his many sports cars.  When he finally realizes what the reporter is referencing, he explains that the teenage girl lives with her mother, Linda Restelli (Martina Colombari).  Speaking of Linda, not long thereafter she calls her ex-husband to tell him that their child is missing.  Annoyed, Checco travels to where Linda lives and they decide to ask Cristal’s friends as to where the young lady could have gone.  The person on whom Checco focuses is Corina (Beatrice Abbro).  Christian propriety prevents me from describing the tactics he uses to get information out of her, but he learns that she has made herself a fake identification card and left for southwestern France.  Thinking that Cristal is just going through a phase, Checco goes after her and she is not happy about the reunion.  She does not bother to completely explain to him that she has decided to walk the Camino de Santiago, the 800-kilometer pilgrimage across northern Spain, nor would he understand.  The person who is more patient with him is Alma (Beatriz Arjona), a fellow pilgrim.  While Cristal wants nothing to do with her father, Alma attempts to make Checco see that this is something his daughter must do.  He spends the first couple of days stubbornly believing his riches will entice her back home.  The first turning point comes when his Ferrari is destroyed during the running of the bulls in Pamplona.  Without a car, he is forced to walk, but Alma points out that this is the only way he can reach Cristal.  Hence, he gives in, purchases all the necessary gear for the trek, and begins walking.  Not long into the hike, he encounters Cristal hurt, having fallen off the path and severely bruising her ankle.  Despite her infirmities and his objections, she wants to continue.  Once again, it is Alma who convinces him that a father’s duty is to his daughter.  Thus, even though Linda is getting increasingly worried that she cannot reach Checco, not to mention his girlfriend’s impatience, he pushes Cristal on the Camino until she is again able to walk.  It is perhaps the most selfless thing he has ever done, and it indicates the start of a change in him.  The process goes even further when it is Checco who gets Cristal to keep going when she gets frustrated with her limping and wants to quit.  She notices it when he gives up a bed in the next hostel to sleep outside in the rain so that Alma and Cristal have a dry place to rest their heads.  As such, when he is urinating more frequently than usual, and in non-normal shade, Cristal insists that they stop so that dad can see a doctor.  This brings back to the beginning of the film, and it turns out that he has a lump in a sensitive place that needs to be removed.  While he is unconscious, she takes a call from his party planner about his outrageous 50^th birthday celebration.  As such, when he finally comes to and is talking about going home, she believes that he is slipping into his old ways.  As before, Alma convinces Checco to continue, and they go together into the Cathedral of Santiago de Compestela where they are present for the pilgrim’s Mass.  Since they have come this far, they decide to take the last extra leg of the camino to the Atlantic Ocean.  With their journey complete, Checco is ready to ask out Alma, but is surprised to find that she is a nun.  He could have asked this Catholic long before this revelation, but I digress.  It is also at this point that the authorities finally catch up with them since Linda and her current husband had filed a missing persons report.  In the middle of talking to the police, though, Cristal gets up and leaves.  She finds Checco walking along, now penniless since his father has cut him off, and the two decide to do a little more walking.

It should be expected that a movie called Buen Camino, even if it were not about a pilgrimage, would involve a lot of walking.  I guess filmmakers think that such an idea could be boring, so they tend to put strange aspects into the story.  This is true for The Way (2010), which is the only other film I know of on the subject.  It is a more serious production, but it has an odd character or two.  I am not going to get specifics for this one, but I will leave it at Buen Camino tops its cinematic cousin in the oddity department.  At the same time, as bizarre as this might be to read, this one is more specifically Catholic.  There are some tiny features that would only be recognizable to somebody who is serious about the Faith, such as Alma’s tau cross that she wears around her neck.  It is an early Christian symbol, and one that I have only seen on Catholic persons.  Indeed, more than a few of my friends wear them, and they are particularly favored by those into Franciscan spirituality.  That part of the Faith is a good one to bring up regarding Checco.  Actually, if you could picture a completely opposite lifestyle to his, then you would have a decent definition of the life of St. Francis of Assisi.  Similar to Checco, though I cannot emphasis how much I hesitate to use such a context, St. Francis grew up in a family of means.  While stopping in the ruined chapel of San Damiano in his native Assisi, he heard God asking him to rebuild the Church.  However, it would not be through grandeur and opulence, but by calling people back to the Church’s humble roots.  He accomplished this through radical poverty and serving the poor.  I do not know where Checco’s walk is taking him at the end, but I like to think he has undergone a similar conversion.

As wonderful of a story of conversion is Buen Camino, it can be a frustrating watch.  The strange moments in the film had me describing it during my viewing as taking one step forward, and two steps back.  If you do see it, try to concentrate on the aspects of the story that pertain to the pilgrimage because they are decent.