Into the Wild

Rating: 8/10 (23 November 2010)

Being a recent addition to the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die book I got the opportunity to see this film and I wasn't going miss it, especially it being directed by actor Sean Penn. Based on the true story, twenty-two year old Christoper 'Chris' McCandless (Lords of Dogtown's Emile Hirsch) has just graduated from Emory University as a top student and athlete, but he abandons his normal lifestyle. He leaves behind his family, mother Billie (Pollock's Marcia Gay Harden), father Walt (William Hurt) and sister Carine (Donnie Darko's Jena Malone), all his possessions, and gave his entire $24,000 savings to charity. His life in twenty months becomes a series of endless walking and hitchhikes, like a drifter, under the new name "Alexander Supertramp", to reach his destination, the wilderness of Alaska. The story flashes forward occasional to where the place he has found to find self-discovery, appreciate the world around him and reflect on the "unreal" existence with his family. This location is situated in the middle of the Alaskan woods, inside an abandoned camper van, or "bus", and while we see him find new ways to hunt down animals for food and make it through the winter, it flashes back to see his life on the road. Along the way he meets various characters who shape his life ins their own individual ways, whether it be offering him a lift, passing on the road or river, or meeting him while stopping somewhere. These people include hippie couple Jan Burres (Being John Malkovich's Catherine Keener) and Rainey (Brian H. Dierker), harvest company owner Wayne Westerberg (Vince Vaughn), teenager Tracy Tatro (Panic Room's Kristen Stewart), and possibly most significant, lonely retired leather worker Ron Franz (Oscar nominated Hal Holbrook). Despite surviving the winter, he finds the river he crossed is raging and he seems trapped, so with no way to get to animals he is forced to eat berries and fauna. He is devastated to discover from his book that what he has eaten is poisonous, and it causes not only nausea but starvation and exhaustion, and eventually he died isolated inside the bus, the text says he was found by hunters. Also starring the real Jim Gallien, the last person to see McCandless alive and The Hangover's Zach Galifianakis as Kevin. Hirsch gives a boyish but intuitive performance, Harden and Hurt do pretty well in their brief roles, the landscapes throughout make for great viewing, and the sense of wonder and sympathy for the lead character really resonate, a moving and certainly must see biographical adventure drama. It was nominated the Oscar for Best Editing, it won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song for "Guaranteed", and it was nominated for Best Original Score for Michael Brook, Kaki King and Eddie Vedder. Very good!