Wild (FILM REVIEW)
Wild
Film
Review by Kam Williams
Reese Witherspoon Stars in Adaptation of Best-Selling Memoir
Cheryl Strayed’s (Reese Witherspoon)
life went into a tailspin right after the untimely death of her mother (Laura
Dern). The grief-stricken 22 year-old subsequently became emotionally estranged
from the people closest to her, including her husband, Paul (Thomas Sadowski),
and her brother, Leif (Keene McRae).
And by the time she had finally bottomed out several years later,
she was all alone and addicted to heroin. Yet she somehow summoned up the
strength to set out on a transformational, solo trek
along the Pacific Coast Trail that would take her from the Mojave Desert in California all the way north to the border of Washington and Oregon.
The perilous, 1,100 mile journey
would prove to be Cheryl’s salvation, as it afforded her an opportunity to
purge her demons while conquering the elements. That magical metamorphosis
would also become the subject of her best-selling memoir, “Wild: From Lost to
Found on the Pacific Trail,” an Oprah Book Club selection.
The story has now
been adapted to the screen by Academy Award-nominated scriptwriter Nick Hornby
(for An Education) as a touching tale of female empowerment featuring Reese
Witherspoon as the intrepid heroine. The picture was directed by another Oscar
nominee, Jean-Marc Vallee, whose Dallas Buyers Club netted Oscars for both
Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto.
Unfortunately, this
flashback flick fails to generate the same sort of sobering gravitas which made
Dallas so
effectively gripping. Consequently, it unfolds less like the similarly-themed
Into the Wild (2007), a riveting survival saga, than Eat Pray Love (2010),
another relatively-lighthearted romp about a woman finding herself.
Wild is an uneven
endeavor which undercuts its own cause by including intermittent interludes of
comic relief, such as when Cheryl’s overstuffed backpack repeatedly causes her
to topple over. Hence, rather than ratcheting up the tension of a harrowing
ordeal, the film merely recounts the assorted highs and lows of a
poorly-planned camping trip run amuck.
Reese Witherspoon
nevertheless delivers a decent enough performance to singlehandedly elevate an
otherwise mediocre adventure to an entertaining one worth recommending.
Very Good
(3 stars)
Rated R for
sexuality, nudity, profanity and drug use
Running time: 115
minutes
Distributor: Fox
Searchlight Pictures
To see a trailer for
Wild, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOPl8gKdmYE
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