The premise itself is a bit hard to buy in to but a subtle, tender touch could have handled it in an interesting way. Instead Ford swamps the film in sentimentality and seriously overdoes many of the characterisations making the premise entirely too hard to buy in to. To make it worse he tries to counteract this by loading up the middle sections with irritating silliness which just feels at odds with the dramatic core of the film. Solidly amusing and the third act is fairly charming.

An effective drama, though overwrought in a few places, Pilgrimage works best in its quieter moments--an early scene on the farm between mother and son, a medal ceremony for mothers on the New York dock, and a remembrance at a memorial in Paris.