Wild (2014)
Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée
A woman with a tragic past decides to start her new life by hiking for one thousand miles on the Pacific Crest Trail.
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It’s important to note that in the right hands, these universal themes of life, loss and overcoming obstacles can be quite moving (the last 10 minutes of “127 Hours” runs circles around most of “Wild”), they are the building blocks of most narratives, but as reduced here they are dull and uninspired.
Watching Wild, I couldn’t help but compare it to other solitary nature movies like Into the Wild and 127 Hours.
But there was no way she was letting go of the lead role in “Wild,” based on Strayed’s 2012 best-selling memoir that recalls other self-induced trials of endurance such as “ Eat Pray Love ,” “ 127 Hours ” and “Into the Wild.”
There’s a lot to be cynical about when you come across a film like Wild: it’s an absolute “Oscar bait” film all the way, from its “civilized person trapped in the wilderness vibe” (see also: 127 Hours or Into the Wild) to the fact that producer/star Reese Witherspoon snatched the non-fiction book up for a film version before the thing was even published; it claims to be about freedom from material things yet also includes frequent and irritating product placements for Snapple tea and REI camping goods; and it talks a lot about life-changing this and brilliant revelation that… but it’s mostly just talking.
Like the Danny Boyle film version of "127 Hours," "Wild" is extremely nervous about boring its audience with its protagonist's aloneness.
…like 2010's " 127 Hours " before it, focuses on a single character and their trials and travails in nature.
But there was no way she was letting go of the lead role in “Wild,” based on Strayed’s 2012 best-selling memoir that recalls other self-induced trials of endurance such as “ Eat Pray Love ,” “ 127 Hours ” and “Into the Wild.”
This isn’t the one-with-self drama-queen travelogue of Eat Pray Love or the pompous one-with-nature spiritual quest of Into the Wild.
I feel roughly the same about Cheryl Strayed as I do about “Eat Pray Love” author Elizabeth Gilbert (a former magazine colleague of mine), which has to begin with the observation that I will never understand, on a personal or intimate level, what it’s like to be a woman who feels imprisoned in her own life in a female-specific trap.
Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée (Dallas Buyers Club) and based on the real-life Cheryl Strayed’s memoir “Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail”, Wild is the sort of awards season film that, at first glance, might come off as little more than another story about a privileged individual who goes searching for relief from their “problems”; a grittier version of Eat Pray Love, so to speak.
It often feels like a welcome reaction to the phony gloss of “Eat Pray Love,” in which Julia Roberts traveled to exotic locales, in search of a handsome male distraction and shallow new-age platitudes.
Reminiscent of many other journey-through-the-wilderness-as-metaphor-for-life movies, Wild is part Into the Wild , part Eat Pray Love , a deliberately and delicately-crafted movie star vehicle for a lead actress who has made some less-than-admirable choices in recent years with bad rom-coms and forgettable dramas.
Although the title and the idea of someone going back to nature might remind audiences of 2007's Into the Wild , the two stories could not be more different thematically.
The film has unmistakable parallels to Sean Penn’s movie, Into the Wild, and if this story is ultimately more uplifting, we always feel that Cheryl Strayed is just a few beats away from catastrophe.
I kept thinking of Into the Wild , Sean Penn's film about Christopher McCandless and his ultimately tragic ramble across the West.
Sean Penn's Into the Wild made his convert to nature saintly, but flawed humanity matters here.
At first glance, “Wild” invites some obvious comparisons to other movies about reckless risk and solitary treks — Sean Penn’s masterful “ Into the Wild ,” Emilio Estevez’s “ The Way ,” about the Camino de Santiago, and this year’s “Tracks,” in which Mia Wasikowska starred as a figure similar to Strayed, a woman walking across Australia to exorcise her demons.
I remember asking that same question during Into The Wild, a similar tale of self-discovery released back in 2007.
Directed by Jean-Marc Vallee (“Dallas Buyers Club”) from a screenplay by novelist Nick Hornby, the 1995-set film is an episodic outdoor solo trek in the vein of “Into the Wild” and the recent “Tracks.”
It’s reminiscent of two other recent films, “Into the Wild” and “Tracks.”
Back in September, Mia Wasikowska starred in Tracks , an adaptation of Robyn Davidson’s memoir about her solo trek across the Australian desert in 1977.
Wild is the third movie to be released this year about a woman who goes solo walkabout; there was also Tracks, based on another desert-hike memoir, and the underseen Redwood Highway.
Still, the film could face some competition from John Curran’s equally accomplished “Tracks” (set to open Sept. 19 Stateside), this year’s other adaptation of a bestselling woman-in-the-wilderness memoir, and it remains to be seen whether it can improve on the modest commercial performance of films like “Into the Wild,” “127 Hours” and “All Is Lost.”
One of the things that make Cheryl more complicated and compelling than the heroine of “Tracks” (this year’s earlier woman-schlepping-across-the-desert movie) is that, along the trail, she experiences every encounter with men as fraught with erotic possibility—or trepidation.
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The best movies that feature such stories of pilgrimage ( Into the Wild , The Way ) work so well because we care not only about the physical wellbeing of these characters, but their spiritual salvation as well.
At first glance, “Wild” invites some obvious comparisons to other movies about reckless risk and solitary treks — Sean Penn’s masterful “ Into the Wild ,” Emilio Estevez’s “ The Way ,” about the Camino de Santiago, and this year’s “Tracks,” in which Mia Wasikowska starred as a figure similar to Strayed, a woman walking across Australia to exorcise her demons.
If you remember Emilio Estevez’ brilliant film, “The Way,” from a few years ago, “Wild” would be a most welcome companion piece.
A find-yourself-by-testing-yourself drama in the “Into the Wild” or “The Way” mold, “Wild” sends Cheryl (Witherspoon) on a self-imposed spirit quest to make amends for the self-inflicted damage she’s done to herself and others.
The methodology they (and Vallée’s co-editor Martin Pensa) employ is a fractured editing style akin to Soderbergh’s The Limey, intercutting her point-A-to-point-B physical journey with tiny slivers of flashback, jigsaw-puzzling together how she got to where she’s at.
Based on the non-fiction book Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail, and adapted by excellent screenwriter Nick Hornby (About a Boy, An Education), Wild may offer some inspiration to those who’ve hit the end of their rope and need somewhere to fall, while to others it will feel like a long and predictable list of “carpe diem”-style platitudes.
Nick Hornby’s (An Education, About a Boy) screenplay predictably dramatises conventional themes like individualism and personal growth but Wild is more interesting as a study of gender and femininity.
To hold all these soul-stretching themes together is quite a feat and director Jean-Marc Vallee ( The Young Victoria , Dallas Buyer's Club ) and screenplay writer Nick Hornby ( About a Boy , An Education ) prove themselves up to the challenge.
The screenplay, deft and nuggety, comes from Nick Hornby, the About a Boy writer whose affinity for female-driven stories resulted in the pitch-perfect adaptation of Lynn Barber's '60s coming-of-age memoir, An Education .
Vallee ("Dallas Buyers Club") works from a script by Nick Hornby, whose novels ("About a Boy," "High Fidelity") and screenplays ("An Education") might make him seem an odd choice for this film.
Where “Wild” disappoints is in the didactic, show-and-tell approach of Vallée’s direction and of the screenplay, which, surprisingly, is by Nick Hornby, writer of “High Fidelity,” “About a Boy,” and “Fever Pitch,” and screenwriter of “An Education.”
But this being an adaptation of a memoir—and what’s more, an externalization of a struggle that half resides in the author’s head—those psychological elements are spilled onto the table like the contents of Ally Sheedy’s purse in The Breakfast Club .
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Strayed’s long walk up the scenic Pacific Crest Trail (which runs from the Mexican border up to Canada) force her into dialogue with herself, though like Alvin Straight in 1999’s Oscar-nominated The Straight Story , she gleans lessons from other folks she meets along the way (call this “The Strayed Story”).
Based on the non-fiction book Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Coast Trail, and adapted by excellent screenwriter Nick Hornby (About a Boy, An Education), Wild may offer some inspiration to those who’ve hit the end of their rope and need somewhere to fall, while to others it will feel like a long and predictable list of “carpe diem”-style platitudes.
Nick Hornby’s (An Education, About a Boy) screenplay predictably dramatises conventional themes like individualism and personal growth but Wild is more interesting as a study of gender and femininity.
To hold all these soul-stretching themes together is quite a feat and director Jean-Marc Vallee ( The Young Victoria , Dallas Buyer's Club ) and screenplay writer Nick Hornby ( About a Boy , An Education ) prove themselves up to the challenge.
The screenplay, deft and nuggety, comes from Nick Hornby, the About a Boy writer whose affinity for female-driven stories resulted in the pitch-perfect adaptation of Lynn Barber's '60s coming-of-age memoir, An Education .
Created by an award-rich group including director Jean-Marc Vallée (Dallas Buyers Club), Academy Award® winner Witherspoon (Walk the Line) and screenwriter Nick Hornby (nominated for An Education) that brings Strayed’s captivating story to the screen, Witherspoon gives the best performance of her career, by far.
Vallee ("Dallas Buyers Club") works from a script by Nick Hornby, whose novels ("About a Boy," "High Fidelity") and screenplays ("An Education") might make him seem an odd choice for this film.