Wild

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Under the Radar

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Today, we take a look at a biopic that depicts woman vs. nature. This film focuses on American writer Cheryl Strayed, and her memoir 'Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail.' For myself, this was essentially like checking out 'Into the Wild', but with a female lead. That said, I must admit that I didn't quite get as much out of this one for subtle, perhaps even nitpicky reasons. But it's nevertheless a pretty inspiring story about a woman overcoming the odds - especially when it comes to things like meeting strangers along the way.

Even though lacking in experience, Strayed (Reese Witherspoon) decides to leave Minneapolis to undertake a 1,100 mile hike on a big chunk of the Pacific Crest Trail. Being that it follows a divorce from her husband, Paul (Thomas Sadoski), as well as the tragic passing of her mother (Laura Dern), this is a therapeutic journey. The hike will offer her the chance to not only heal from her recent wounds, but find herself as well. These events also follow the more destructive path she initially took, involving a lot of anonymous sex and heroin. Some of this anonymous sex even lead to an abortion, which seems to have been her real deciding factor as an opportunity at redemption. So yeah, there's quite a lot going on under the surface for our lead character.

They do a pretty good job here at making sure that they don't overdo it, but throw danger in her path every now and then. There are moments like one where she has to face off against a rattlesnake that don't really lead to anything. But there are others, especially with the people she meets, that are enough to make you fear for her safety. She often makes decisions one might consider pretty dumb, but having said that, she does seem to learn as she goes. The whole thing about this is that she's inexperienced, and perhaps some of these decisions are simply made because they might lead to food and/or water, maybe even tips on how to better her hike. So it's kind of this weird "who can you trust" thing, and though the threats are always potentially there, not a whole hell of a lot happens. In fact, throughout the film, the worst enemy she has is essentially herself. There's a moment or two of doubt about people, but there's not much to fear here if you don't wanna catch some creepy 'Last House on the Left' vibe (thank God).

Interestingly enough, I don't remember this movie ever being a thing. It was likely that I wasn't interested and therefore didn't bother and forgot. However, to its credit, this has done fairly well for itself. It was nominated for two Academy Awards for both Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern for their acting skills (losing to Julianne Moore for 'Still Alice' and Patricia Arquette for 'Boyhood', respectively). There was a Golden Globe nomination for Witherspoon on top of that as well. It seems to have sort of dropped under the radar since then, as I hear no one talking about it, ever. Having said that, however, I think it might be worth a look if you can appreciate things like nature and poetry and the artsy side of filmmaking.

Personally speaking, I probably wouldn't include this one in my favorites as far as... let's say "Person vs Nature" films go. There's nothing I'd say is particularly bad about it (although, again, a lot of her decision making is questionable) and most of what I could say against it would be a nitpicky criticism. If you're willing to get a little bit deep with a film, it's a pretty inspiring story about a woman overcoming quite a lot. It does feel a bit heavy-handed at times, but that's probably also the point. The film goes through her struggles up until the end, which I won't spoil, but it's a happier ending than 'Into the Wild' that kind of makes you think. I liked it, and I'd probably watch it again to see if it ends up growing on me. But for now, it's just an interesting story about someone I never knew existed. Now that I do, I'd be curious to read some of what Cheryl Strayed has actually written. All in all, she's an inspiring person.

​3/5

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