Definitely just for an American audience

Rating: 3/10 (26 October 2007)

Saw this movie last night with BAFTA - before I go any further, let me just say that the cinematography is amazingly beautiful and "big".
The comments from another reviewer about the "shocking random human nudity" baffled me. If you would find the brief sight of a flaccid willy, a topless female sunbather and a 2-second distance shot of a bunch of naturists shocking, then beware! But there was nothing of a sexual nature, and nothing I would not allow my 6 year old grandson to see.
Other than the above comments, I am afraid I have mainly negatives.
This is the story of a privileged young college graduate who studied various calamities in Africa as part of his schooling. His only personal calamity is that he has parents who have been less than truthful to him about their family history, and who have the audacity to argue in front of him during his childhood. He appears to want some personal angst so badly that he uses this to fuel his requirement for his own "personal issues".
In order to "understand his true nature" (yuk!) he drops out of the education system and goes walkabout in the wilds - another prime motive for which appears to be to punish his parents for their sin of being less than truthful to him during his upbringing.
I do not think a European audience will warm to the story of such a self-indulgent, cruel character who appears to have no empathy for the people he emotionally hurts, and at 150 minutes I almost felt I had gone through a trial equal to that undergone by the character in the film.
What I also do not get is the big deal about living in the wilderness - replete with hunter's rifle, gas lighters and various other technological accoutrements including a derelict bus. Again, another America-centric theme: this time of "frontiersmanship" I would suggest.
Finally, I would say that the lack of empathy I felt for the character meant that the narrative did not touch me or make me care about his fate - and the way Emile Hirsch occasionally played to the camera, like a fly-on-the-wall reality show, broke the spell of "suspending belief" that is so critical in allowing yourself to be immersed in the story - it suddenly reminded me that I was merely watching a film All-in-all, I would recommend steering clear.