the guy needs a good shrink

Rating: 2/10 (12 March 2009)

For me, this was by far the single most pretentious and overrated mainstream film of 2007. Even without reading the article on Wiki, I guessed that this guy was either schizo or bipolar. For a guy who supposedly majored in History and Anthropology, Chris McCandless was hugely sentimental and romantic, and ultimately just foolish. So he reads Tolstoy and Thoreau, and trudges off into the wild ?? Perhaps he ought to have read some Kafka and Dostoevsky too : he would have realized that for man there is simply no escaping himself and the world. So yes, society is indeed based on mutual deception and empty conventions, but rejecting everyone and everything isn't the solution. Far from it. Its much more challenging to be a part of society and yet try to lead an authentic life. How many such radicals and "total solutions" have we already seen in the past ?? They always fail.
The film itself sheds zero light on the motives of the real Chris McCandless. I don't think it tells the truth about what actually happened to him. He lives in an alternate universe where he can happily live in the wild and on city streets after living a pampered upper-class life for 22 years. No troubles, no complaints. And throughout its long runtime, the film goes on hammering the point that society and civilized men are terrible, and bums, hippies and the dregs of society are the Lord's cherished angels.
It figures that Sean Penn, the fashionable self-styled outsider, would make something like this. Its right up his alley. I didn't enjoy this at all. Above all else, its dreamy and unrealistic. Its an ironic film, in that its a lesson for young people what NOT to do, i.e. turn your back on your responsibilities and look for ultimate solutions.