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WILD
A pair of Oscar-nominated performances make 2014's Wild worth investigating. This is the fact-based story of a woman who finds an unusual outlet for dealing with all the rotten cards she's been dealt. Unfortunately, the rotten cards turn out to be a lot more interesting than the outlet.
This moody, episodic drama is about a woman named Cheryl Strayed (Reese Witherspoon) who, distraught over the end of her marriage, and the death of her mother (Laura Dern) impulsively makes the decision to hike over a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail, a journey of self-discovery and renewal that, despite her lack of experience, does transform the Cheryl we meet at the beginning of the movie. Actually, our first glance of Cheryl is about halfway through her journey where her hiking boots have just fallen off the edge of a very steep cliff.
This movie does introduce the viewer to what is new and foreign cinematic territory. The world of hikers is apparently a counter culture all its own, kind of like bikers. The trail offers assistance along the way that Cheryl knew little about. An early scene of her trying to get her over-packed backpack on was kind of comical, It was fun when she learned that the company where she bought her boots will automatically replace them free of charge when they wear out. An encounter with a writer for a "hobo" newsletter who was so impressed with meeting that rarest of animals, a female hobo, was also amusing.
Unfortunately, the story of Cheryl's journey wasn't nearly as interesting as the backstory that motivates it...her crumbling marriage, the beautiful evolution of her relationship with her mother who rose above an abusive marriage that she shielded her children from before succumbing to cancer and Cheryl's bouts with drug abuse and promiscuity were a lot more interesting than Cheryl's hike, taking the focus of this film away from where it was intended.
The long winded screenplay by Nick Hornsby adapted from Cheryl's book is hard to stay with at times but director Jean-Marc Vallee's respect for the subject comes through in every overly detailed frame. Witherspoon is wonderful in this physically demanding role as is Dern, who lights up the screen as her mother and as expected with a film like this, there is some exquisite location photography, unfortunately, the wrong story came into focus for me making the film pretty hard going, but still worthwhile.
A pair of Oscar-nominated performances make 2014's Wild worth investigating. This is the fact-based story of a woman who finds an unusual outlet for dealing with all the rotten cards she's been dealt. Unfortunately, the rotten cards turn out to be a lot more interesting than the outlet.
This moody, episodic drama is about a woman named Cheryl Strayed (Reese Witherspoon) who, distraught over the end of her marriage, and the death of her mother (Laura Dern) impulsively makes the decision to hike over a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail, a journey of self-discovery and renewal that, despite her lack of experience, does transform the Cheryl we meet at the beginning of the movie. Actually, our first glance of Cheryl is about halfway through her journey where her hiking boots have just fallen off the edge of a very steep cliff.
This movie does introduce the viewer to what is new and foreign cinematic territory. The world of hikers is apparently a counter culture all its own, kind of like bikers. The trail offers assistance along the way that Cheryl knew little about. An early scene of her trying to get her over-packed backpack on was kind of comical, It was fun when she learned that the company where she bought her boots will automatically replace them free of charge when they wear out. An encounter with a writer for a "hobo" newsletter who was so impressed with meeting that rarest of animals, a female hobo, was also amusing.
Unfortunately, the story of Cheryl's journey wasn't nearly as interesting as the backstory that motivates it...her crumbling marriage, the beautiful evolution of her relationship with her mother who rose above an abusive marriage that she shielded her children from before succumbing to cancer and Cheryl's bouts with drug abuse and promiscuity were a lot more interesting than Cheryl's hike, taking the focus of this film away from where it was intended.
The long winded screenplay by Nick Hornsby adapted from Cheryl's book is hard to stay with at times but director Jean-Marc Vallee's respect for the subject comes through in every overly detailed frame. Witherspoon is wonderful in this physically demanding role as is Dern, who lights up the screen as her mother and as expected with a film like this, there is some exquisite location photography, unfortunately, the wrong story came into focus for me making the film pretty hard going, but still worthwhile.