Review of Wild (2014) by Mark L — 15 Mar 2015

I enjoyed the movie Wild. Reese Witherspoon leads the way in one of her greatest performances. Her character (Strayed) is making an 1100 mile journey through the wilderness of the pacific northwest on the Pacific Crest Trail or "PCT" as it is refereed to many times. We learn the back story of Strayed's life though flashbacks mostly with various people of her past, mostly her mother played by Laura Dern in an Academy Award nominated role. Those memories give us an idea as to why she is undertaking such a huge journey.

Nick Hornby wrote the script for the movie directed by Jean-Marc Vallee hot off his critically acclaimed movie of last year the Dallas Buyers' Club. Vallee delivers very raw footage of the trail, which is awesome to look at and enjoy. He was really able to take you on the journey helping you feel what Strayed is feeling. For instance when she's out in the wilderness alone on the first few nights with all the strange noises, or the strange men that cross her path wondering what they will do.

Witherspoon hits it out of the park in probably her best role since "Walk the Line". She excels so much, I think she out performs the movie. She is able to portray not just vocal emotions, but also just by facial expressions we can read her mind. With the screen presence she has, there is such realness to her character, which makes it all the more awesome because Cheryl Strayed is in fact a very real person.

I can't tell you what the movie left in or out from the memoir, but I never once had the feeling that I was watching a Hollywood dramatization of one element of a bigger story. The movie felt very real, the story felt real, and the characters felt real. However, I felt the movie ended on a flat note leaving me scratching my head why I should be thankful I got to see this story. There are many things that make Wild and good movie, just not enough to make it a great one.