Review: Wild

Released: 16^th January 2015

Certificate: 15

Director: Jean-Marc Valée

Screenwriter: Nick Hornby, Cheryl Strayed

Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, Thomas Sadowski, Keene McRae, Gaby Hoffman

In early 1995, Cheryl Strayed set off alone on a 1,100 mile hike along the Pacific Crest Trail, which winds its way through California, Oregon and Washington. Adapted from Strayed’s own account of her journey, Wild sees Strayed (Reese Witherspoon) navigating not just the truculent terrain of the PCT, but the messy trail of her recent past, which unravelled after the death of her mother (Laura Dern).

The way that these twin journeys (one of the mind and one of the body) intersect and intertwine forms a strong thread throughout Wild. Each challenge in the formidable American wilderness has its looking-glass twin in Strayed’s reminisces, and her attitudes to the events on the trail are given context by the gradual reveal of the events in her life. Witherspoon delivers an assured performance in an unusually physical and complex role. She perfectly captures Strayed’s anger, vulnerability and growing resolve, and is unflinching under Valée’s frank camerawork. Strayed’s disintegrating pre-trail life is a downward spiral of promiscuous infidelity and drug abuse as she seeks to punish herself sufficiently for failing to live up to the example set by her mother, however despite the explicit content of certain scenes, they never feel gratuitous or voyeuristic, and are clearly intended to illustrate, rather than titillate. This is laudable and ensures the focus remains squarely on Strayed’s emotional journey. Nick Hornby’s script, despite falling into the inspirational story trap of being a little heavy on cod philosophy, generally works well. The conversations between Strayed and her mother in flashback are particularly poignant, and the walking to redemption theme is surprisingly moving. The esoteric touches of the mysterious fox and of Strayed’s mother appearing, spectre-like, at the scenes of her recalled misdeeds, are also effective. Although the film is played perhaps a little too conventionally to be truly extraordinary, there is nevertheless much to admire about it, and indeed much to enjoy.

Verdict: 3/5

Image credit: foxsearchlight.com/wild