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An arduous journey across America on the Pacific Crest Trail, Cheryl Strayed tests her tenacity to continue forward till the end. There's very little else to the story, which makes this film really powerful. With not much else other than a tedious walk and a vampish past the story bobs back and forth between the present and the past revealing how Cheryl finds herself in such a circumstance and why she cant stop until she is finished.

At first Cheryl seems like a woman unable to let go of her now ex-husband, beginning a journey with more baggage than is necessary. It might almost be easy to throw this story into the bin of sappy chick-flicks when that inability to get closure on a relationships end is actually fronting as more of an act of remorse and regret. She messed up. And there is no way to repair the damage without an ugly scar.

The further she goes the more she dives into the series of events that lead her to such a devastating circumstance of sex and drugs. The loss of her mother is far too much for her to feel. The depth of such pain can sometimes strip a human being from feeling anything at all. The tears flow from her face but those tears are not falling for grief, they drop from the overwhelming numbing the death has caused.

Cheryl's emotions are lost in a wild and desolate space that is pain and grief, which is so perfectly mirrored with the vast, open landscape she is now physically wondering through. And both her emotions and the land are the same: it wont change immediately and things will be tough but if one keeps going forward one will come out of it. And better for it. Cheryl just needed that physical aspect to make the connection with her emotions. The self-loathing and destructive life she was living was the equivalence of her just lying down on the sandy path and dying right there.

It's a fairly event-less film where a woman just goes through some fairly tough terrain but somehow the flashes to her past spliced in with the turmoil of her present moves the story along swimmingly.

If you're a fan of deeply emotional story lines this one might very well be worth the watch.

An irresponsible female goes on a hike & basically plans this hike in the same regards,like most of her past life decisions.

Not saying this movie was horrible,but so many better stories by others could of been told.. This trail surely has many stories to tell,but hers wasn't solely worthy.

When someone takes on such a journey it's to learn & grow,her approach felt more of an escape to runaway.

She was about.. Bad relationships,drugs,sex,unwanted pregnancy & always a victim. Yet somehow she becomes a hero,because of hiking a trail? Wow! If not for help along the way she would of had to quit before hardly beginning,again poor life choices.

Again because she was a female & traveling alone,this made her inspirational? Not really.

Food for thought: Would anyone of watched this if presented as a documentary? Doubtful. Why it became a movie with a good cast,otherwise it wouldn't of got anywhere.

The continuous flashbacks instead of helping you feel emotions,caused you to disconnect regarding her life.

The cinematography was decent,still worth checking out if bored.

Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern got well deserved Oscar nominations for their roles in this film. In fact, I cannot fathom how Witherspoon was denied a win.

I won't fall into the trap of comparing this film to the book. The book was the best one I read last year, and I thought it unfilmable. I was surprised at how well the film managed to capture the essential elements of the book.

The key was not the Pacific Coast Trail, but Cheryl Strayed's journey into self-discovery. The point where she fell to her knees in tears was the culmination of pain in her life, and the realization of her love for her mother.

This is definitely a film to watch more than once.

No secret that I love one-man survival films (although this wasn't that type of "survival" film). Still, despite very good reviews, there was always a severe lack of hype and passion it seemed (certainly here). Maybe that's why I was so surprised. Usually this kind of heavy-edited, heavy- flashback-intercutting-with-main-story film alienates me emotionally for that reason. Too much back and forth. I had the same problem with 2007's Into The Wild, which so often prevented me from getting too involved with it. For some reason I didn't have that problem here. The actual story, as well as the dramatic ticks in the flashbacks and even in the present, aren't anything we haven't seen before dozens of times. However, the film really managed work despite that. The editing I found to enhance the film immensely, and the specific style of the intercutting with her memories managed to make the film more powerful.

I like Witherspoon just fine in Walk The Line, but it was all mostly surface-level. She was fun, but any lasting impact? Not at all. She's truly fantastic here, and she will get a very deserved nomination tomorrow. Now, everyone knows how much I'd been rooting for Laura Dern for a nomination. I hadn't seen it, but she's one of my favorite actresses. But so many reports of her role being super small, almost a cameo. Her role technically is super small, less than 10 minutes for sure, but the relationship between her and Witherspoon is the central relationship at the core here. Dern's presence is felt throughout to an incredible degree. And she really does have a meaty role for such short screen time. It reminds me of Jessica Chastain in The tree Of Life and also to Patricia Arquette in Boyhood, perfect depiction of that feeling of compassion and motherly love that is eternal. Dern is one of those actors that can move me with so little, so I don't think this was at all anything difficult for her, but either way, she manages to become such an undeniable, powerful part of the film. The editing is part of the reason that central relationship works, but the scenes Dern gets to convey her entire character are flawlessly acted and, so beautifully ethereal. I had feared for a while there that it would be such a small role she'd make no lasting impact, but of course she'd make an impact. It's Laura Dern after all.

Wild has a really intriguing premise, the idea of a solo hike does it for me but I was wary that the movie lasted over 100min. What could possibly be entertaining about a women hiking alone from the Mexican border to the Canadian Border? As it turns out quite a lot.

At first, it's hard to understand Cheryl, she definitely does not strike you as a someone who could do this. She bit off more than she can shew, it's clearly naive of her. But as Cheryl is struggling on her hike flashbacks of her life before the Pacific Crest Trails are peppered throughout the movie and like anyone you're getting to know she starts to make sense. You get to understand what she's been through, who she is, and what motivated her to do this. It's a challenge that she brought on herself for herself, something she needed.

And just like that a 115 minutes passes, during which you were taken on physical and soul searching journey with amazing landscapes, and a flawed but strong woman. Reese Witherspoon carries that film beautifully, she layered her performance with sensibility and a quiet strength that suited the character. I didn't totally relate to Cheryl but I wasn't completely impervious to her ordeal, I also have dreams and life-goals to achieve.

On a side note, it was recently pointed out to me I had never seen Wild as the female lead version of Into The Wild. I've never finished Sean Penn & Emile Hirsh's hiking movie but from what I remember Into The Wild was much more wild and raw the dude wasn't on a hiking trail but in the wilderness. These two movies only compare in the drives these two characters have to undertake their journey.

Wild is a beautiful movie about personal growth and living in one's truth. @wornoutspines