Reese
Witherspoon Laura
Dern Thomas
Sadoski Michiel
Huisman
Gaby Hoffmann Kevin Rankin W. Earl Brown
A young woman makes a soul-cleansing journey
(1100 miles) to make amends and work through a painful grief by hiking the
Pacific Crest Trail from the southern border of California up to the
Oregon-Washington border. Reese
Witherspoon is enchanting in playing the role of Cheryl Strayed, who ventures
out with little preparation or training, only a set jaw and little, albeit
some, trepidation. In her favor
besides her heroic determination are good looks and a winning personality.
Her first challenge is simply loading her
gigantic pack and struggling to put it on her back and stand up, which takes
several tries. After she has
walked several days, one helpful person helps her go through it and throw out
all unnecessary items, and things go better after that. She has to climb over large rock
formations, wade through waist-deep water, and trudge through snow, so
lightening it is essential.
What makes the story so engaging are not only
her personal struggles, but the many kinds of people Cheryl meets along the
trail, some initially threatening, some clearly threatening, many who are
clearly helpful, and even a rosy-cheeked curly-headed cherubic boy who wins her
heart by being interested in her and eventually singing her a song. This occurs toward the end of the trail
and precipitates an emotional break-through for her. Canadian director Jean-Marc Vallee (Dallas Buyers Club, C.R.A.Z.Y., The Young Victoria) also hooks the
viewer in with his artful way of inserting scenes of Cheryl’s past, which
informs about who she is, what she has experienced, and why she is on this
journey. It seems to be a bit of a
fad for filmmakers to avoid chronology and jump around in time, which to me is
not always successful, but Vallee knows just how to do it so that it adds to
the viewer’s experience and keeps the drama moving smoothly.
The film is based on Cheryl Strayed’s memoir, Wild:
From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trailway, and Nick Hornby’s
screenplay is a finely crafted adaptation of the book to film. High drama, beautiful scenes of the
Trail, and sprinkles of clever humor add up to a very good movie. Witherspoon’s performance is one of her
best, and the addition of Laura Dern as her mother, Thomas Sadoski as her
ex-husband, and colorful characters along the trail make for a
well-synchronized enactment of the fine script and direction. Wild
is likely to be mentioned more than once during awards season for 2014 films.
Take a hike. You’ll enjoy it!
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