Wild

I am really surprised at all of the negative reviews here. But then I remember, this is IMDb. Enough said there. I enjoyed this movie very much. I don't think it was anything more than the story of one woman trying to find a way to move forward. This movie is not a political statement about feminism. This is ONE woman's story of regret, healing, and ultimately about forgiving herself so that she could move forward. Is this movie boring? Only if you need CGI and superheroes to call it "exciting." Do people do really adventurous things like taking off alone on a thousand mile trek on foot? Yeah, they do. And most of them actually survive. People have been surviving for thousands of years by striking out on their own without any previous experience or "training." Many years ago I did something very similar to what this woman did in the Sierra Nevadas. Looking back now I know I must have been crazy to do something so unplanned. But it was something I felt I had to do and was also stemmed from a tragic loss. I thought Reese was very believable in this role. The constant flashbacks that seemed to bother all the other reviewers did not bother me in the least. The flashbacks were the unfolding of her life taken in little pieces and in sync with the memories that were ignited within her on her journey. So contrary to the other reviewers, I liked this movie! The soundtrack was right on target with what was happening in each scene. The scenery was stunning, but of course it would be if you've ever been in the area. On foot. I happily gave this movie a rating of 7 out of 10.

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.

Your life will most likely determine whether or not you like this film, whether or not it moves you.

I read the book and was not sure how they were going to make such an introspective novel into a movie but they did a pretty good job. My group of friends had mixed reactions, some of us were deeply moved (myself included) some where wondering why we were...

I felt the way her story was portrayed in flashbacks was very effective and about the only way to tell this story. It can never be as deep as the emotions in the book and it had to skim over a lot but still, for me and others I was with it was very powerful.

On a superficial side note... I wish she had looked dirtier. Her hair and clothes always looked too clean for what she was doing with very minimal hygiene.

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.

A wonderful performance from Reese Witherspoon anchors this very good film about a troubled young woman who embarks on a miles-long hike as a sort of personal therapy to deal with the downward spiral of her life in the wake of her mother's (Laura Dern) death. Witherspoon reminds everyone what a good actress she is; I haven't been this impressed by her as an actress since "Election" way back in 1999 (and that includes her overrated Oscar-winning performance in "Walk the Line"). And it's nice to see Laura Dern again, who's popped up here and there over the past many years but has mostly been absent from the movie scene. The movie's editor deftly integrates flashbacks of Dern and Witherspoon together with the character's hike through the wild, and avoids the monotony that usually plagues films when structured this way.

One of the minor miracles of "Wild" is how subtly it explores not just the trials and dangers one would encounter in such a hike, but specifically how those trials and dangers are heightened, or at least are of a different nature, for a woman. Only once in the film is it overtly addressed, but before that scene late in the film, the director and Witherspoon have already conveyed without words how perilous such an adventure could be for a young woman, for whom every encounter with a strange man carries with it the possibility of sexual predation, even if it doesn't materialize (which, the film acknowledges, in most cases it doesn't). At the same time, the film restores one's faith a little bit in humanity, suggesting that most people are decent and kind and willing to help, no strings attached.

Witherspoon and Dern were both justly Oscar nominated for their performances, and the gorgeous Pacific West scenery deserved an award of its own.

Grade: A