Wild, 2014.
Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée.
Starring Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, Gaby Hoffman and Kevin Rankin.
SYNOPSIS:
Attempting to recover from a traumatic life event, a young woman sets out on a 1,100 mile hike along the Pacific Crest Trail.
Wild is an incredibly emotional journey, told beautifully in pictures by Jean-Marc Vallée. It also marks Reese Witherspoon’s best performance in almost ten years.
Based on her memoirs, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, the film tells the story of Cheryl Strayed (Witherspoon) as she sets out on a quest to reclaim her former, more respectable self. “I’m going to walk myself back to the woman my mother thought I was,” she states at some point along the way. The tragic loss of her mother Bobbi (Laura Dern), who escapes an abusive marriage only to succumb to lung cancer at age 45, acts as a catalyst for Cheryl to lose herself in a world of drugs and promiscuous sex with strangers… a combination that ultimately results in the destruction of her marriage. Only after hitting rock bottom does she then decide to take the plunge and walk alone over a thousand miles in some very real and tough terrain.
Along the Pacific Crest Trail, Cheryl encounters the likes of rattlesnakes, llamas, horses and a mysterious fox, many of which provide some of the most subtly emotional moments of the film. Cheryl also meets some interesting human characters along the way, including a farmer named Frank (W. Earl Brown), a hippy-type named Jonathan (Michiel Huisman) and a fellow hiker, Greg, played by the always-likeable Kevin Rankin. She also has a run-in with a harmless and comical character named Jimmy Carter of the Hobo Times (Mo McRae), and a more threatening encounter with a couple of hunters. The latter of the two is effectively crafted in a way that, even though you think you see it coming, it still catches you off guard and really creeps you out. Gaby Hoffman and Thomas Sadoski do fine jobs as Cheryl’s good friend and ex-husband respectively, but it’s Dern’s heartbreakingly perfect performance as Cheryl’s tragically hopeful mother Bobbi that really steals the show.
Wild is Vallée’s followup to his highly praised 2013 hit, Dallas Buyers Club. Just as that film brought out some of the best work to date from both Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto, Wild has done the same for Witherspoon. It is exactly the role she needed (her best work since 2005’s Walk The Line) and it certainly gives her a run at this year’s Oscar. While she may be more convincing in a role like June Carter, she doesn’t disappoint as Strayed. Her tenacity to conquer this real and utterly gritty character transcends any prior audience perception of her Hollywood sparkle and shine. It’s great to see her take on such risk.
That being said, the critical piece of this film’s success is, without a doubt, the inclusion of Vallée. His ability to spin an interesting, emotionally effective story is in top shape, as are the skills of his uber talented cinematographer Yves Bélanger. Some of the film’s best visual moments are achieved through his lens, which seems to always find a sort of natural elegance or magnificent beauty. The music in the film is also very well done, sometimes on the nose like Simon and Garfunkel’s “Homeward Bound,” but nonetheless still extremely effective and key to the emotional punch of the story. The script and the editing are also well executed, as the storytelling jumps back and forth through memories and flashbacks of Cheryl’s past with a smooth, fluid motion.
Wild is one of the best films of 2014. It is emotionally charged and has an uplifting, fulfilling story arc. Only a few others like it, Into The Wild, All Is Lost, rise to these levels of greatness.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★ ★
William Fanelli is a contributor to Flickering Myth – You can follow him on Twitter
Originally published December 20, 2014. Updated April 13, 2018.
