The Case for Verisimiltude

Rating: 9/10 (11 July 2008)

When I was six, I decided in a pout to run away from home. I reasoned that dandelion leaves make a good salad, honeysuckle produces sweet nectar, and some peanut butter sandwiches for the road would take up the slack, food-wise. Not a bad plan--that is, until it was deep-sixed by my mother, who could see that survival outdoors wasn't my forte.
What strikes me the most about Into the Wild is, aside from the exceptionally engrossing quality of the film itself, was the skew of the facts: Chris McAndless had less practical awareness and planning ability than I evidently had as a first-grader (marksmanship ability aside), but the movie presents him as a wise and spiritual soul in the making, cut down before his prime. The truth is that going into the wilderness without a store of food goods, a map, a compass, knowledge that snow melt leads to swollen streams in late summer, or even a coherent plan for shelter were not smart moves. They point to a personality which, though life-loving, open-minded and likable, remained stuck in adolescence at 23. Fatally so. It's a testament to the film, though, you do see his death as a true tragedy in the end.
Jon Krakauer, an extremely conscientious journalist (see Into Thin Air), who spent three weeks in the Alaskan wilderness himself, created a balanced portrait of McAndless in his original research, published in Outsider magazine. Krakauer took pains to point out to the adventure loving readership that personal quests such as the one McAndless undertook are never solo enterprises: loved ones invariably suffer when things go wrong, and detaching from them can be needless cruelty. That version of Into the Wild was a cautionary tale. I wish that element had remained in the movie.
But then, Hollywood wants a neater portrayal of its heroes. Producer Sean Penn, to his credit, saw to it that the original material amounted to several back story sequences that sustained the attention far better than two hours of a wilderness experience would have. He won Krakauer's cooperation in co-writing a screen play, and after waiting ten years got the permission of the family for the film, despite an unsympathetic portrayal. And, especially, he chose a superb cast that has the viewer living fully in the moment. Emile Hirsch as Chris is astonishing--losing 40 pounds for the role and convincing at every moment--fully meriting the six film nominations and two that he won for this performance. Not to be forgotten are Hal Holbrook as the achingly lonely retiree revived by Chris' charm, gaining our full sympathies; Catherine Keener as the seemingly carefree woman who tries and fails to remind Chris what it means when a child disappears; and Martha Gay Harden/William Hurt as his dysfunctional but fully human parents. It was for good reason that the entire group was nominated for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture by the Screen Actors Guild.
If only Chris had gone a few more miles upriver: he would have discovered the bridge that would have allowed him to return to civilization. And if only the film had been clearer about his missteps, this film would have been both outstanding entertainment, and a worthwhile object lesson.