Review of Wild (2014) by Phillip D — 28 Jan 2015

I am starting to lose count on how many times this has happened in movies I have watched this year. Winter's Bone, Mud, Inherent Vice, Boyhood, Drinking Buddies, etc. The list goes on and on. All feature excellent, if not downright fantastic performances.

Some of those movies are even gifted with additional positive points. But none of them resonated. None of them entertained. None of them brought the life out of the story and onto the screen. The problem with these movies, as well as Wild, is that is treats a storyline as a mathematical equation, adding in interactions, flashbacks, characters and music at all the right times.

The formula seems set to create a winner. Unfortunately, great films don't follow those rules. They break the mold to bring the formula to life. Don't get me wrong, Witherspoon delivers a great performance, probably a career best.

The original story looks great as well and I am very likely to read the book. The movie doesn't make any inherent mistakes, it just falls flat. There isn't really a discernible climax. The cinematography is adequate but it isn't really anything new, artistic or groundbreaking.

The storyline seems familiar, so similar to the plodding pace and direction of the movies listed above. The soundtrack is typical indie film but it isn't transcendent. Over and over again, I keep waiting for the music to lift me but again and again, it seems acceptable at best.

I am not asking for fiction here. I truly believe that the true story can be transferred to the screen. It will just take more than your average hipster director looking to inject REI, the Northwest, an indie soundtrack into a sad story.