Wild **** (2014, Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, Gaby Hoffmann) – Movie Review

Reese Witherspoon stars as Cheryl Strayed, who undertakes a 1,100-mile solo hike on the Pacific Crest Trail to try to recover from her recent catastrophes. In flashbacks, she seems to have gone to pieces in an orgy of promiscuity and taking heroin after the death of her beloved mother Bobbi (Laura Dern) though cancer at the age of 45, walking away from her marriage to Paul (Thomas Sadoski).

Nothing hugely much takes place on the walk, just snakes and men who turn out not to bite after all, but that doesn’t stop this being a hauntingly effective movie, lovingly made by Jean-Marc Vallée, the director of Dallas Buyers Club. The hike is involving, more for what could have happened to Cheryl, a woman alone in the wilderness, rather than actually did, but it’s the flashbacks and the musings on the past as Cheryl tries to help herself that make this film fascinating. When she walks away from real therapy and her therapist, she uses the walk as her therapy, and it works for her as she tries to heal herself. The walk is her way of finally grieving.

Witherspoon is good in a peach of a part, though it is odd to see her as this rough diamond of a character, swearing, enjoying sex and taking drugs.Despite her tiny, girl-like physicality, Witherspoon suggests her character’s toughness and determination maybe more than her soft and sensitive, deeply hurt and damaged side. She’s 40 in 2016, but still looks 25.

Dern is useful in the background, though it’s not really a satisfying role for her to play, as her part is a bit of a cypher and in any case the movie just all about Witherspoon’s Cheryl. Dern is just there to smile and to suffer, both of which she does perfectly. I’d have liked to have seen the Wild movie that starred Dern as Cheryl, but that’s just me. Gaby Hoffmann has nothing to do as heroine’s friend Aimee. Her Cheryl might have been interesting too.

Witherspoon and Dern were both rewarded with Oscar nominations, for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress respectively.

Writer Nick Hornby makes an effective screenplay out of Strayed’s memoir Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail. I’d have dropped the repetitive Day 1, Day 2 captions, which threaten to loom heavy over the film, though they’re not terrible.

Wild – and Witherspoon – are both considerably better and more effective than I’d expected from the trailers or advanced word. It’s a thoughtful and intelligent film, more than a wilderness survival tale. In fact, it’s a life survival tale. And a good advert for walking. At least with the right boots. (And don’t pack too much when you’re travelling!)

It does make an interesting comparison with Tracks (2013) with Mia Wasikowska playing a young woman who goes on a 1,700-mile trek across the deserts of West Australia with four camels and her faithful dog.

Strayed has a cameo dropping off Cheryl at the beginning of the film and wishing her good luck. Strayed’s daughter plays the young Cheryl.

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© Derek Winnert 2015 Movie Review

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