Review of Into the Wild (2007) by James C — 20 Jan 2013

Into the wild is the story of Christopher McCandless and his rejection of money, possessions, family and friends to pursue a life of isolation, travel and freedom into the wild.

The story is an interesting one. I find it insightful and inspiring. I myself have wanted to something very similar on many occasions, just "down tools" and take to the road. The amazing places that McCandless visits are highlighted by the stunning cinematography, thanks to Éric Gautier.

From around the middle of the film the audience start to realize that McCandless is quite selfish and he is as much running away from his previous life as he is running towards his new one. I myself began to lose interest in the character a little at this point. I found it so ironic that he left in search of happiness in isolation away from all people, but finds that "happiness is only real when shared". He finds out a great deal about forgiveness and relationships with people, but needed to spend 2 months in isolated Alaska and kill a Moose in order to find this out.

This revelation is very much at the end of the film and it seems to take a rather long time to get to this point. Although exciting and fresh the story gets old quickly and just goes on and on. It also starts to jump backwards and forwards in time which can get pretty confusing.

The film is carried along by Emile Hish (Milk, Speed Racer, The Girl Next Door) who plays his part well and was a good choice for this role. Jenna Malone (The Ruins, Suckerpunch) and Kristen Stewart (pre-Twilight saga) are both convincing in their roles and feel that they are both stars of the future with bigger and better things ahead of them.

It was also nice to see Hal Holbrook (who played Ron Franz) I know he was pretty good in Water For Elephants, which was released 4 years after Into The Wild, but I can't remember the last time I saw him in a film before this. Wall Street? The Fog? Either way, I enjoyed his part in the film and found Mr. Franz to be the most touching character of all. (If you are interested in Hal Holbrook he has about 4 projects lined up for release over the next 12 months, Lincoln to mention just 1, so watch this space).

In conclusion; the story was intriguing and moving in places, the Cinematography was beautiful, the acting wasn't bad either but it was too long, became boring in places and its easy to dislike the main character. All things considered I think it was pretty average overall.