Could have been great

Rating: 5/10 (9 October 2007)

I'll preface my review by saying that the film definitely has great moments and redeeming aspects, but I feel that Sean Penn focused too much of the story on the physical journey of Christopher McCandless and not enough on the relationships he has throughout the film. Having read the book I feel that the most important aspect of the story is how his parents' relationship affected him and how that in turn affected his relationships with all others. Especially because of the ending and the message it sends the viewer, I think the narrative structure could have benefited greatly from expanding on the relationships he developed along the way (and why they always ended with him running away from commitment and long term acceptance) and condensing the actual physical travel. I realize that the physical journey is a big part of Chris' story, but I feel that all the time dedicated to showing him travel could have been better spent developing who Chris really was. Sean Penn created an accurate portrayal of Chris' story, but at the end of the film we are still left wandering who Chris really was. The film also tends to repeat itself unnecessarily, showing Chris go through many similar traveling and reflecting situations as well as showing several short relationships that consist of not much other than Chris telling them that he's "going to Alaska".