Wildlike

Saw this at the Woodstock film festival - still thinking about this film. The entire team did an amazing job with difficult subject-matter. They captured the dynamics and emotional significance of the abusive situation while retaining a strong positive sense of life, elements that come from the script and direction - all by the same man. The acting by the entire cast is outstanding. I love the heroine (and that is what she is) and the performance had me always rooting for her! Very glad that the always excellent Bruce Greenwood was cast in a critical role because the credibility of his performance is essential to the credibility of the resolution. Also love that the film is serious without being dark or depressing. I hope many more audiences have a chance to see this film, including young people. As a former prosecutor for these cases I saw so much that could be talked about by young audiences and really want to see this film in wider distribution!

Saw this at Austin Film Festival. Wildlike tackles a very difficult topic with great sensitivity. Powerful filmmaking. Beautiful imagery. Concise, strong writing. Great acting.

Ella Purnell (MacKenzie) strikes a wonderful balance between troubled teen and innocent victim. I really appreciated the subtleties of her performance. But the character that brought humanity and hope to film was Rene Bartlett played by Bruce Greenwood. Greenwood creates a quiet, modern-day hero, not one with superpowers and a cape, but a common man guided by his principles and integrity.

In a wilderness as remote and vast as Alaska, Wildlike never gets lost.

Wildlike follows a teenage girl as she goes to live with her uncle. She soon realizes that circumstances at home with her uncle are unbearable and ultimately she runs away, where she meets an older man about to go hiking.

I love the title. It's a simple word that is rarely used in the English language, and it fits the movie pretty well. It's a small thing that proves that the director gave a bigger crap about this movie than some others might've.

There are some pretty nice scenic shots in this movie. They aren't anything I haven't seen before, but they were pretty at least.

The actors are pretty good. I bought each performance, and the writing accompanying them was pretty good too. It was like each part was written for the actor who played them. They manage to embody these characters really well.

The movie spends a decent amount of time developing certain plot points. I specifically appreciated this at the beginning of the movie when the girl and her uncle first start living together. Their relationship is pretty well developed, although short lived, and there're a couple great scenes involving the uncle alone in his room. We as the audience see the turning point in him when he decides to make living with him unbearable, and we see him struggling with this decision and it's something we just don't see every often in movies. It brings humanity to the bad guy right off the bat, and I really appreciated that.

The two main characters Kenzie and Bart have really good chemistry, and I really enjoyed seeing them on screen together and interacting and all that.

I quite enjoyed the soundtrack as well. There were a handful of good songs throughout, and most of them suited the movie pretty well too.

Unfortunately the story does fall flat on it's face from time to time. When the actual hiking starts it's kind of forced. There's not really a good reason for it to actually happen and serves more as filler, character development, and scenic shots. The last two of those things are good, but like I said, it's pretty forced. You as the audience are able to understand for the most part why it happens, but it's still kind of dumb.

Overall Wildlike is pretty good. There's some great chemistry between the two main characters, some good actors, the main 'antagonist' is great and very human, the soundtrack is good and the scenery is pretty, but the plot is often forced for the sake of story progression. In the end I'd recommend this movie.

Not only does this film (through its actors and director) tackle a difficult subject with sensitivity and a realistic touch, but its portrayal of a trip to Alaska is spot on. Having lived and traveled there for several years I think the film captures the sights, travel and exploring the Great Land in an equally honest and straightforward way.

The actors neither overplay their roles nor sleep through their performances.

Not a Hollywood blockbuster and not filmed with a blockbuster budget. And maybe that's why this film succeeds on several levels.

Well done.

We came across this movie on Amazon streaming. The young British actress Ella Purnell is very good in the role of 14-yr-old Mackenzie, her performance carries the movie. Bruce Greenwood is his old reliable self as Bart, the recent widower who is on a presumably solo hiking and camping trip in Denali.

Her mother is having some issues and is unable to properly care for her daughter, so Mackenzie is sent to live for a while with her uncle in Alaska. He gets creepy right away, crawling into her bed at night, so when she gets a chance she grabs her backpack of belongings and heads away, with no particular destination in mind. She just wants to get away.

She encounters Bart entirely by accident, she starts to follow him, he tries to get rid of her but she is persistent. He senses something is very troubling to the girl but she won't talk about it. As a viewer it was a bit frustrating that she wouldn't talk about her situation and why she was in the wilds alone.

This is a quite different take on teenage angst and frankly as the last 15 to 20 minutes concluded I was happy with the way it was scripted. Bart did some things that set the girl up for better prospects and gave the creepy uncle some incentives to never bother her again.

My wife and I enjoyed the viewing.