Hated

Rating: 4/10 (30 July 2008)

First, the good things about this movie (which in no means excuse the terrible) - beautifully shot and beautifully acted. However, this is the story of a petulant, arrogant, self absorbed and completely selfish person who deserves a Darwin award - and let's face it - gets what he deserves at the end of the film.
Why would Sean Penn want to shoot such a beautiful movie about such an idiot? OK - I get it, he had terrible parents. Lots of people do, but you don't see them taking off without warning and putting the people who love and care about them through hell. I also get that convening with nature and isolating oneself from the modern world is attractive to some people. But why oh why would you be so incredibly stupid as to take off without letting someone know? I love how he had the realization at the end of the movie that he would only attain true happiness if he had someone to share it with. Blech. Nature abhors a vacuum, and at the end of the film when the Universe treats him with a dose of his own medicine. When he died I found myself really caring less about him and more about his poor family who had to deal with the news that, had he not been selfish, and told someone where he was he might still be alive.
Plus I hated the narration from his sister who kept trying to make excuses for his behaviour - Honey - stop trying to peg his pitiful excuse for not being a decent human being on his "journey to find himself". He's simply an incredibly selfish human being.