Review: Wild

So yesterday my beautiful bestie and I decided we were going to do something different and go for walks around some national parks and animal sanctuaries. I had even planned on doing a blog on our little adventure, complete with tons of pictures and funny anecdotes. But alas, the temperature was a son of a bitch. I think it was about 35 degrees (and the ‘Real Feel’ on my phone said 44). It was so hot!! So, we decided to go shopping and then to a movie. On the upside, I got a post out of the day anyway.

We decided to see ‘Wild’, since Kate really wanted to see it. Honestly, I wasn’t too concerned with it at all. It wasn’t on my list to see, but I’m willing to watch anything I can get a review out of.

Here’s what the movie is about:

Cheryl Strayed, played by Reese Witherspoon decides to walk 1,100 miles (around 1,800km). The movie is told in flashbacks of her memories while she journeys along the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). At age 22 her mother, played by Laura Dern passed away suddenly. This sent Cheryl spiralling for the next few years, while she tried to quell her all-consuming grief, until it culminated in her decision to walk the PCT.

THE GOOD:

I went into this thinking it would bore me a bit, and be kind of mushy. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for inspirational movies, but I prefer the ones that are more real and raw in their emotions. I don’t really go in for the ‘feel-good’ inspirational stuff (unless it’s ‘The Blind Side’, that’s awesome). With that in mind, it was with trepidation that I entered that cinema and sat down. I was wrong.

This movie is most certainly inspirational, but there is nothing ‘feel good’ about her journey. She battled death, divorce, drugs and drowning in her own grief and self-loathing. It didn’t shy away from real parts of life, which let’s face it, can be utterly disgusting sometimes. For example, she can’t figure out her gas burner and has to eat ‘cold mush’ for days, resulting in a shot of her ‘cold mush poo’. Yep, poo. She covered it with rocks, but still. Also, the movie opens with her removing her boot to find one of her big toe nails hanging mostly off. Yuck! Even more disgusting is her pulling it off completely. Double yuck! Despite being grossed out, I was also highly impressed by the movies decision not to shy away from that kind of stuff. It’s real and the movie would have been less without it.

The chemistry between Witherspoon and Dern is great. Even when they’re at odds it works. The same goes for Witherspoon’s chemistry with her other co-stars. The best performance from her, however, comes in the scenes where she’s alone on the trail. She goes through a barrage of emotions; happy, angry, frustrated, frightened, starving, disgusted (mostly with her own personal hygiene). Witherspoon helps you get lost with her and helps you feel what Cheryl is feeling.

THE BAD:

I can’t fault this movie too much, but it isn’t flawless. One thing I found a little hard to swallow was Witherspoon as a junior in college. It wasn’t necessarily her age, although I think a 38 year old playing an 18 year old is a bit of a stretch. I think she looked too experienced. Although her scenes with Dern were fantastic, I still couldn’t help but think ‘gee, they can’t have that much of an age gap in real life’ (I was right by the way, they’re only about 10 years apart).

The only other bigger issue I found with the movie is that you don’t really know that it’s about to end until she’s speaking the final lines, of which the last word is ‘Wild’, which I found a little cliché. I don’t necessarily think it ended badly, but it kind of just ended. She does mention the life she will go one to have, but for me, it didn’t feel like it was time to roll credits.

THE OVERALL:

I really enjoyed this movie. I don’t think it’ll come close to being the best movie I see this year (that spot’s being reserved for Jurassic World), but it was definitely poignant and beautiful without being mushy and self-important. I’m not going to lie, I kind of wanted to go hiking when I left the cinemas, but then I remembered I’m lazy and not really in need of self-discovery, so I just went home instead. It also made me want to go straight out and buy the book, which I will do very soon, and review as well. I think this is a great movie. It’s not hard to watch and I definitely left feeling empowered and inspired by her story. I think the casting of Witherspoon as Cheryl was spot on and I would definitely watch this movie again.