One man's journey

Rating: 6/10 (4 November 2015)

"Into the Wild" is an almost 10-year-old movie written and directed by two-time (at that point one-time) Academy Award winner Sean Penn. He wrote some more stuff in the last years, but until today, it's been the last film he has directed, even if he has an AdÃ¨le Exarchopoulos film coming up as director. "Into the Wild" got 2 Oscar nominations, including an acting nod for Hal Holbrook, and a couple more SAG nominations. I can't say Keener's was deserving, not sure about lead actor Hirsch. He was pretty good, but maybe not that good. We should always keep in mind that this is not a journey everybody needs to go on. It really is more of a tragedy that happened because a young man severely struggled with his life and his parents' broken marriage. I think many audiences mistake this walk for something desirable. Of course, there are positive aspects to it and maybe, if you are in a different situation than the protagonist here, it can be something that helps you with your life, something recreational, but it is not in this movie. Or do you want to die in some bus weighing only 30kg because you ate some poisonous plant?
I guess it is also this shocking ending that makes this film so popular. I myself did not see it coming. I thought things would work out well in the end. Then again, I also did not know this was based on a real story and this is probably the only reason why it did not. Even if I believe none of the actors were great here, I thought everybody did a decent job at least. I am surprised Brian H. Dierker acts so little as he was one of the best things about this movie. And thumbs up also for Kristen Stewart who showed us already she has great talent before her Twilight breakthrough. And last but not least, Emile Hirsch (who looks like a young Roger Federer here) carried this film for almost 2.5 hours, which is quite a spectacular achievement for such a young actor holding his own against some truly experienced folks in here. "Into the Wild" is among the IMDb's Top250 and I would not put it in there for my personal Top250, but it was a good watch. Thumbs up and I recommend it.