Review of Into the Wild (2007) by Ruairí C — 09 Jul 2014
Undeniably, this is a beautiful looking film that will leave an impression on many, however it is entirely too one-sided and concerned with painting Christopher McCandless (AKA Alexander Supertramp, played by Emile Hirsch) as a modern-day American folk hero to provide an objective view on his travels or motivations.
The subplot introduced whereby Christopher's sister Carine (Jen Malone) tries to make sense of Christopher's disappearance reveals a lot of dark secrets from Christopher's youth, that might explain why he wanted to leave and perhaps never return, never resonates with what we see of the young man's adventures: Hirsch plays McCandless as one-note, always happy and philosophising, with nary a hint of any underlying angst or family issues. The two strands never coalesce, in spite of some ham-fisted eulogising shoe-horned in to an overly-sentimental climax, and an arguably more compelling investigation into what this man's motivations might have been is raised by Penn and then completed ignored in favour of propaganda.
These complaints (and a few others) aside, there is still no denying that Into The Wild is a beautiful and indelible film. The impression it leaves, however, is down to whether you question or accept what is present herein.
This review of Into the Wild (2007) was written by Ruairí C on 09 Jul 2014.
Into the Wild has generally received very positive reviews.
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