With Charlie Sheen’s exploits continuing to raise onlookers’ eyebrows, his father Martin is left to rely on his less theatrical son Emilio Estevez to partner him on this picturesque journey of faith, choice and self-discovery.

Sheen is forced out of his middle-class American comfort zone by the death of his son, a wayward character who set out on a doomed mission to follow in the footsteps of many a pilgrim along the historic Camino.

This 800-kilometre route stretches across the French Pyrenees, into Spain and onto Santiago de Compostela, the final resting place, according to legend, of the apostle St James.

As Sheen sets off to collect his son’s body and decides to complete the trek in his place, we learn through flashback of the strained relationship between the pair. The fact that Estevez plays the uncannily similar son, as well as directing his father through these grief-stricken scenes, adds an ironic layer to a deceptively simple tale.

Sheen is on as engaging form as ever, battling with the elements and his own sadness, until his solo burden is lightened, if that’s the right word, by a predictably motley crew of fellow travellers.  It’s hard to decide who wins the award for most annoying companion - Yorick van Wageningen as a roly-poly Dutchman determined to walk off his tummy, or Deborah Kara Unger as the chain-smoking American woman with a cynical veneer.

Victory must surely go, though, to James Nesbitt, chewing up the stunning Spanish scenery as a creatively-blocked professional Irishman. And guess what, they’re all searching for something too.

Lumbered with this bunch of clichés, Sheen quite understandably loses his rag and goes into one of his celebrated Apocalyptic meltdowns, leaving us to discover whether the Camino will work its thousand-year-old magic and help him and his fellow modern-day pilgrims each find their way.