Wild

It would be easy to dismiss Wild by its trailer.  It looks like the latest in a long line of self-help films.  Movies like Eat, Pray, Vomit, which hide behind some faux spiritualism and in reality are just a load of old shite.  Yet, within minutes of this film starting you are quickly stripped of that feeling.  As Reese Witherspoon, portraying Cheryl Strayed, pulls the nail off of her big toe, there was an audible gasp around the cinema I was in.  For the faint of heart this is not.

Based on the memoir of the aforementioned Cheryl Strayed, Wild: From Lost Coast On The Pacific Crest Trail, the film tells the story of her resolution to hike more than a thousand miles on the Pacific Crest Trail, in order to become the women her mother raised.  During this hike, which she does completely alone, she delves back into her memories, as the past intertwines with the present day giving the whole film a dreamlike feel.  This shows us exactly what led her to this time and place.  Of course, it is not only the demons of her past that she has to deal with, but the very present dangers of an inexperienced female hiker, doing a very difficult journey all by herself.  Whether it is wild animals, lack of water or other people, Strayed’s journey is not your average walk round the park.

This obviously leads to Witherspoon having to bear the brunt of the acting.  There are a lot of scenes here that are essentially her walking through a desert.  Yet, it never gets dull.   It’s a wonderful performance and one that takes on even more power as we stray back into her past, seeing a women that had great promise and went off the rails in a spectacular way.  It creates a character that is both strong and weak, tough and scared and allows Witherspoon to show a side of herself that we have never seen.  She lugs that massive bag through the wilderness and makes it out the other side in one piece.  It turns her from a character on the a screen, into a real human being, battling both herself and the wild that she has thrown herself into.

Of course, she is not the only person in the film and is in fact not even the only one to be nominated for an Oscar.  Laura Dern plays her mother, a women who the world has dealt a bad hand to, but who is unwilling to let it get her down.  Her and Witherspoon have a great chemistry and you believe in their relationship.  While Dern does a fantastic job of getting across a women who spends most of her life wearing a mask, in order to protect the children she is desperate to turn into decent people.

Director Jean-Marc Vallee also deserves credit.  One for getting these performances out of his actors, but two for managing to make this a coherent story.  The leaping around through Strayed’s timeline could have very easily become confusing, leaving the watcher scratching their head as to just what is going on.  Instead, it comes across as complete.  The editing insures you always feel like you know where we stand, even as we dip in and out of the past.

Wild is a wonderful film, it makes you question what your achievements actually mean and how you became the person you are today, but also manages to be life affirming.  In fact, it can be very easily compared to Vallee’s last film, Dallas Buyers Club.  We come out of the other end of Strayed’s journey as relieved as she is that we have made it through and it’s that, which ultimately makes this film a success.