Wild
Director: Jean-Marc Vallee
By Alex Watson
Numerous times in film we have seen people walking to get somewhere, and there are forever obstacles along the way. Just look at movies such Walkabout, Into The Wild and more recently the Mia Wasikowska starring Tracks. But the individual behind is always seeking a higher purpose and this route they are taking, can often be determining their course in life. French-Canadian director Jean-Marc Vallee has this year brought us a stirring adaptation of Cheryl Strayed's memoir Wild which documents her 1000 mile trek along the Pacific Coast Trail. With Reese Witherspoon on board, this could be a journey of a life time.
After years of reckless behaviour, including a divorce from her husband, Cheryl Strayed (Reese Witherspoon) decides to walk along the 1000 mile trek of the Pacific Coast. Through this she attempts to heal the wounds of her old life and begin to find herself and become the person she had always wanted to be. But she must put up with several difficult obstacles among the desert and mountain terrain before completing her journey.
After his Oscar winning effort, The Dallas Buyers Club, Jean-Marc Vallee scores highly again and Wild proves to be a very prominent and beautiful filmed movie. From the Mojave Desert to the Forests of Oregon, this tale makes use of the immense space that it has to distinguish it from the more recent efforts. Combined with the stunning cinematography of Yves Belanguer, it effortlessly sums up the loneliness and isolation that comes with such a journey and what nerves and suspicions can come from such wide open spaces.
Refreshingly Cheryl isn't a woman who is running away from her problems, she is walking to change them. Vallee and screenwriter Nick Hornby decide against playing out her troubled back story in its entirety and only drip feed us moments of her drug fueled and promiscuous past. These images are presented to us as being like a horrific dream that she is only waking up from. But it's the tragic and premature death of her mother Bobbi (an excellent Laura Dern) that lingers heavily over this movie. Through her anguish and pain, Cheryl lost her way and she is now striving to get back on track to become the woman her mother would have been proud of. This may seem formulaic and awards tailored to some viewers, but Vallee finds a way to make this work and it gives his movie an air of lift towards it, particularly as we view the free spirited yet strong woman that Bobbi once was.
The perils of danger along her journey though are forever hanging on the air, and there are any number of stomach churning encounters such as rattle snakes, snow covered hills, raging rivers and in one frightening sequence, some drunken and frisky hunters in the midst of a large, lonely forest. A slightly nauseating opening sequence sees Cheryl have to remove a septic toe-nail onto top of a high ravine, only to have one of her trusty boots fall helplessly below! Experiencing these problems though only strengthen her resolve and for maybe the first time in life, she begins to come into her own.
Reese Witherspoon, despite being alone for the majority of this film gives a performance that is one of her best in some time. After some missteps following her Oscar win for Walk The Line, Witherspoon demonstrates that she has truly earned her critical praise with a determined yet sensitive turn. She doesn't seek to play Cheryl as an out and out victim of life, more a woman who looking to get back on the rails and begin living again. Whether she will be nominated for the big prizes will remain to be seen, but after this she hasn't certainly earn another shot at glory.
Wild is an adventure movie worth experiencing and gives more light to the talents of both Vallee and his star Witherspoon. This journey, like many before it is not a straight forward one, but it will certainly grab at your heart and refuses to let go.
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