Review of Wild (2014) by Mj F — 22 Apr 2015

For the events taking place in the present, the movie drove home a feeling of simply observing people. I got to see Cheryl's interactions with various types of people, cool aspects of life as a hiker, beautiful shots of nature, and moments of desperation on this perilous journey. There really was no way of predicting what was going on or a semblance of a theme, but that's to be expected from a real-life story. It was just nice to watch things unfold and to root for Cheryl on the way.

The flashbacks into her past are much deeper, however. She really has had a complicated life and seeing the conditions that motivated her to pull this off was quite something to behold. Her mother Bobbi plays a central part in this motivation. It's good that they got a good actress to play her because she is such a huge part, and I could feel the impact she had on Cheryl's life.

What I didn't like was the way the movie started. It jumps forward a little in time, showing a moment when Cheryl was very distressed, and that really wasn't an accurate precursor to the story. It really isn't about how hard it is to hike or being overwhelmed by nature. Stuff like that did happen to her a couple times, but that's not the focus. This way of introducing the story felt very misleading and unnecessary.