Wild

— I haven’t read Cheryl Strayed’s book so I came into the movie “Wild” with only the hint of the story provided by previews. This is a very interesting work and it couldn’t have been an easy task to pull off. It’s basically the story of one woman—Cheryl Strayed—coming to terms with herself while walking 1,100 miles across the Pacific Crest Trail after having gone to the edge and beyond. The script is nothing short of amazing, entering the story in the middle of things and filling in bits and pieces of Cheryl’s story through flashbacks, dreams, and mental wanderings, until you have a sense of her life leading up to a trek. Reese Witherspoon is fantastic. So is Laura Dern as her mother. There are many good things about this film but high on the list is the fact that Cheryl isn’t some long-suffering saint or symbol of unshackled womanhood. She’s not exactly looking for redemption as much as just wanting to come to terms with who she is. She’s not a hero, nor even someone with a single flaw, and a film this introspective may not be for everyone, but it definitely appealed to me.

---

[2014. 115 min. Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée. Starring Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, and Gaby Hoffmann.]
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/sep/09/wild-a-two-hour-hallucinatory-montage-toronto-film-festival-review