In Journey to You, Monica walks Spain’s famous El Camino de Santiago trail in search of spiritual renewal—and she finds love along the way, too. There’s some light romantic content as well as redemptive themes such as God’s sovereignty and familial reconciliation.
Despite all her hard work, Monica didn’t get the promotion to practice manager at her hospital. And now, all that work seems so worthless.
By all accounts, Monica should have gotten the position. She’s extremely involved at her job: Monica hasn’t taken a vacation in four years. In contrast, the woman who did get the job just got back from a vacation in Europe!
And maybe that’s the point.
Maybe there’s such a thing as being too controlling, and Monica’s mother is convinced that her earnest daughter has fallen into that rut. That’s why she convinces Monica that a vacation would do her good—in particular, a journey down Spain’s famous El Camino de Santiago. It’s a historical pilgrimage route through which plenty of travelers have found spiritual renewal, and it’s also the same route Monica’s own parents once walked.
Monica agrees to the suggestion. Soon, she connects with a group of other likeminded sojourners on the trail who are hoping to find solutions to their own issues, too. One of those is a man named Luis, a recently divorced parent hoping to use the time to reconnect with his increasingly distant son.
And together, they’ll slowly find that the solutions to their struggles might take a few more steps down that path than they’d hoped.
Monica’s journey forces her to recognize that things are going to be perfectly fine without her hand guiding everything. When she begins the walk, she’s not quite ready to relax and let go of her worries; she can’t quite relinquish the urge to schedule things she’d like to do along the way.
But the journey eventually helps her to see that, ironically, her tight-gripped grasp on everything is what has made her life far more tiring than relaxing. And in a similar way, Monica’s mother reminds her that those who continuously hope to find full satisfaction in work promotions will discover that they’re not as fulfilling as hoped.
Monica experiences further change when she’s asked by another traveler who she is. Reflexively, Monica begins talking about her job back home. But the film hopes to remind audiences that we are more than what we do; and, in Monica’s case, she is far more valuable than her work.
Luis, meanwhile, hopes to connect with not only with his son, Mateo, but with his father, Ernesto, as well. El Camino gives him the time to focus on both of those relationships. In particular, he and Mateo learn that their strained relationship is because of a miscommunication about the things that Luis falsely believes Mateo enjoys. Once that becomes apparent, the two grow closer.
Along the way, various characters give up the things they think are holding them back from greater personal growth.
El Camino is a Catholic pilgrimage, and it has been for more than 1,000 years. While people now walk it for a variety of reasons (from New Age spiritualism to simply the adventure of it), the film grounds its story at least nominally in Christian belief—and nominal is the best word to describe the theology in this film. The group also talks somewhat mystically about the walk as if it is a living being that itself will cause spiritual change in their lives.
At one point, the group reach the Cruz de Ferro, and people briefly discuss a burden they’re each choosing to leave behind. Monica states that she’s going to give up control, and she’s going to trust and surrender, and she looks up at the cross as she says it.
Monica frequently opens a devotional and reads a line that often relates to recognizing that God is in control: “Set your heart to wait with trust and not with a lack of confidence in His ability or willingness to move on your behalf,” she reads in one example.
Ernesto leads two prayers, both about giving thanks to God for the things He has blessed them with. Likewise, Monica prays to God, thanking Him for making her realize that He is with her. She also repents for feeling as if she needed to control everything. And Luis admits that he’s thankful that God brought Monica into his life.
Mateo admits to being upset that his grandpa wants to pray because Mateo isn’t sure that he believes in God, and Ernesto argues that shutting himself off from God is not a good thing for an uncertain person to do. Mateo later gives prayer a chance.
A couple of times, we hear someone say, “The opposite of faith is not doubt; it’s certainty.”
A man and woman kiss. Another male and female duo lightly flirts with each other. A woman wears a somewhat low-cut dress.
None.
None.
Throughout the film, characters have wine as they enjoy various meals.
None.
For a time, Hallmark was seen as a sort of secular “safe zone” for Christian families looking for their fill of non-salacious cheesy romance. Though no one could say that their movies were the highest aesthetic caliber in terms of plot, quality or substance, they were relatively inoffensive and predictably heartwarming. And the term “Hallmark movie” quickly became synonymous with formulaic, romantic stories with wholesome endings.
But for Christians, things changed in 2020, when the company announced that it would begin intentionally exploring new storylines featuring LGBT characters and relationships. The decision effectively made that “safe zone” just, well, another zone. And many Christian audiences chose to take their business elsewhere in response.
In some ways, Journey to You feels like an effort to woo those Christian audiences back.
The film itself is, in standard Hallmark style, unproblematic enough, featuring a straightforward romance wherein a kiss is as “salacious” as anything ever gets. Likewise, the Christian faith featured in the film is about as inoffensively nondenominational as one can get, with vague discussions about God being in control and the occasional prayer of thanks. There’s also a nice message or two about how tight-gripped worries about the future prevent us from growing as people.
Had Journey to You released half a decade ago, I imagine it’d fall right into the happy hands of Christian Hallmark fans. But whether Christian audiences will want to come back to a company that unapologetically spurned them is another matter. Those that do watch it, though, will find a nice, lightly faith-oriented story about a spiritual journey intermingled with romantic discovery.
Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”
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