Wild (2014)

Better than expected.

Wild is the story of Cheryl (Reese Witherspoon) and her journey of self discovery as she goes on a 1,100 mile hike across the wilderness. Now, this may sound like a rather boring or cliched premise, but in this case, it works. As Cheryl hikes we see flashbacks of what has caused her to go on this journey. The flashbacks jump back and forth in time, never showing too much at one time, and keeping the audience interested in the full story. This is very effective, in that we don't see too much of Reese Witherspoon walking around in the wilderness, and we don't see too many flashbacks. This way, we never get tired of either one of these things. I was always ready to see another flashback and find out more, and I was always ready to go back to Cheryl out in the wilderness to see what she discovers next. The movie was very well paced and never felt like it was dragging or being to rushed. I was very comfortable in the theater just going along for the ride, not worrying about when the movie would be over. It may not seem like it, but Wild is an entertaining movie, and I wasn't bored once. The movie also does a great job of maintaining a consistent mood. There are serious dramatic elements that work really well and are never too cliche, and there are also light, comedic moments, to make sure that this is an enjoyable experience. These two things never get in the way of each other or confuse the emotions of the audience. I feel like I've made it abundantly clear how much I enjoyed and appreciated the story, so now it's time to move on to acting.

Reese Witherspoon is, of course, amazing in this movie. The whole movie is on her shoulders, as well as a large heavy backpack for a majority of the movie. In the hiking scenes you can see great emotion in her face and you can see a different character than the one in the flashbacks. It seems as if she truly did go through everything that happened in the flashbacks when you look at her in the hiking scenes. She does an amazing job showing the multiple, complex elements of her character. If nothing else, see this for Witherspoon's performance. If Witherspoon doesn't get an Oscar nomination for this performance, I will be very disappointed.

Laura Dern is the second biggest role in the movie. She plays Cheryl's mom and she is also great in this movie. She plays a very interesting and likable character, and I enjoyed seeing her on screen. She certainly proves that she still has what it takes and is a great actress still today.

Let's talk about camerawork. The camerawork is very good in this movie. It still has that handheld look at times, which I don't like, but other than that it works very well to set the mood. The sad flashback scenes are dark and at times gray, while the happier scenes and the scenes in the wilderness are filled with color and energy. There are also some beautiful shots of the landscape that look great on the big screen.

I actually really liked what Wild did with music. There are many times during the movie that Cheryl remembers a song that brings back a memory, or simply a song she likes while she's out hiking. These songs are played in the background in a quiet and echoey manner, sometimes distorted. Maybe showing that her memory of the songs isn't perfect? When the movie started I was thinking "if I was out in the wilderness all alone, I would sing a lot." And there is a good amount of singing in this, albeit quietly at times and not in tune, but it made the film seem more realistic. If you're out in the wilderness, you probably won't remember songs perfectly, and not everyone is an amazing singer, so it made Cheryl seem that much more real (even though she is a real person).

There was at least one problem I had with Wild though. Most of the male characters are portrayed as sleazy, sex hungry, animals, and at times it felt very cliche. For example a scene with a couple of creepy, beer drinking, hunters who harass Cheryl. For a movie full of so many unique and interesting characters, these stereotyped male characters felt very out of place and kind of gave the movie that slight feeling of feminist snobbiness. Not all of the male characters are bad though, and in that regard I am happy. I'm glad that not ALL the men are creepy, sex fiends and that at least we get SOME credit. For all of the good things Wild has going for it, this small problem is pretty easy to look over.

Overall, Wild is a great character study, and an entertaining story of self discovery. Witherspoon gives a career best performance and Laura Dern is fantastic as well. I am very glad that I got to see this movie, and would highly recommend it to others. If you have a chance to see this, don't pass it up. I'm sure that you won't regret seeing it.


4.8/5

__________________
Through the darkness of future past
The magician longs to see
One chants out between two worlds:
Fire walk with me.

Wild

I have to admit to not being very enthusiastic about seeing Wild, but, all things considered, I thought it was mostly pretty good. This is mainly a one-woman show, presumably released in December to inject Reese Witherspoon into the “Oscar Buzz” that comes around with late year releases. The movie is taken from the book of the same name, by Cheyl Strayed (also one of the screenplay writers) and is a memoir of her similar experiences. The story has no surprises, being the story of Strayed deciding to undertake a solo hike of a thousand miles on a Pacific Coast trail that traverses desert and mountains (and snakes and snow). Unfortunately she has no apparent experience in hiking, and is recovering from the loss of her mother as well as bad history with men and drugs. As you probably can guess the plot centers around her learning to be a hard core backpacker and managing to survive and complete this huge challenge.

She has to toughen up, not give up after 5 miles with a heavy pack, survive weather, rough terrain, inexperience, some sketchy trail denizens (both animal and human), hopefully learn something in the process and remain open to the OK people she meets along the way. Danger and suspicion lurk around every turn and the easiest thing to do is to decide that it’s a stupid idea and quit before she does any more serious harm to herself. As if all this is not enough, she’s also psychologically haunted by the cancer death of her mother, the alcoholic surliness of her absent father, the precarious state of her brother, her broken marriage and her lack of a coherent future.

Do I think the movie has Oscar Buzz? I would say yes for Reese Witherspoon. I’ve never been that fond of her as an actor…she’s just too cute for my taste, but in Wild, she looses most of that and manages to rise to her self-imposed challenge and convey just how difficult and dangerous the trip was. Unfortunately, however, the repeated and incessant flashbacks to her weird and moribund mother (Laura Dern being really excessively lovable and vulnerable) was too much for me. I was also troubled by the casting, what with Witherspoon being nearly 40 in real life (and looking like it) while Dern, her mother, is 47 (also looking her age). Their ages didn’t work for me (a 7 year old mom?). I also thought the movie would have been better if the story of her mother were condensed and played out early in the movie so her hike could be her act of moving on rather than being haunted all the way…and then, suddenly, she comes to the end of the trail and the movie is over. Wild is currently sitting at 91% for critics, 80% for viewers and 7.5 on IMDB, so it looks las though the critics like it better than the audiences. I guess, for tonight, I’m a viewer, not a critic.


3.5/5

Quite a good Film. 4/5