Horribly and sadly misguided...

Rating: 2/10 (22 March 2008)

This movie is hardly deserving of the rave reviews it has received. This shallow movie has no point, the main character has no redeeming qualities, and though this movie has a lesson, it is so sorely obvious it is not worth watching the entire movie to figure out.
The movie is a jumble of random events and flashbacks from a troubled boy's journey to Alaska. He meets some hippies, works at a few fast food joints, and lectures an old man who lost everything about the meaning of life. The events are broken up, scattered, poorly written dialogs and clichés and full of dead spots where the "protagonist" is simply sitting there in a filthy condition which is meant to represent his hard and meaningless journey.
The main character has no purpose. He is simply a deeply troubled intellectual whose family completely messed up. It can be described as a soap opera: His father left a previous marriage to marry his mistress who is already pregnant with this story's main character, during the time which the movie takes place, his parents are currently thinking of divorce, and he is so deluded and depressed he thinks he can take on the Alaskan wilderness and find some deeper meaning to life outside the populated world which he views as more twisted and false than he is. Summarized: the main character is so arrogant that he thinks he can do anything.
The lesson of this movie?: Don't go into the Wilderness. Ever. Especially if you are a demented kid with no training or experience. Countless people told him he would, with 99.99% certainty, die. He dies. No one saves him. Not even the books. Here's what the main character learns and advises: Call everything by its proper name. Wow, I am so inspired.
However, I gave it a two. Why? The sister's monologues were good and some of the camera shots of the wilderness were just beautiful. The rest is horribly misguided mess of clichés and overrated stupidity.
Enjoy.