A captivating drama from 2007.

Rating: 8/10 (1 October 2011)

Emily Hirsch stars as the guy who decides to leave society after graduation. He leaves everything behind: family, friends, belongings; burns his ID cards and even gives the money on his savings account to a charity foundation.
You'd think the guy is a rebellious man about to give society a lesson. No, that's not the case. Surely he was not brought up by the most lovable parents in the world, but he was properly raised and he managed to get top grades at college; all the prerequisites of making a career have been met.
Yet, he decides to go into the wild. All the stuff he has are essential for his survival: clothes for each coming season, weapons to hunt animals and books; famous works of famous authors let each and every day pass in a way one can only consider worthwhile.
He meets various people upon his journey (hippies living on their own, also cut off from society, agricultural workers he joins to make some money, tourists from Denmark enjoying their free time whilst travelling the US, etc.), he befriends them, but eventually continues to prepare for the great journey: arriving to Alaska.
Emily successfully portrays a man who got fed up with the people of modern society: divorce between parents, backstabbing friends, hypocrisy given to you by a great many people and also he sees the victims of the so-called consumer societies - people who want more of those things that come in the form of a mobile phone or a car or a house.
Too bad the film takes place in the early '90s. One would think things have gotten better since that time but they have only gotten worse: our lives our encompassed by the internet, social networks and mobile phones - each of them is a means to be as "far away" from people as possible while trying to maintain a social activity by creating fake behavioural patterns. This film would be perfect if it had been made recently.
Regardless, it is a masterpiece cinema I can only recommend. Each character is lovable and although the film is slow-paced at times during its 150-minute run, it gives you a satisfactory journey (ending done well, likewise) and maybe, maybe makes you reinterpret your life.
I give it 8 out of 10.