Long and simplified

Rating: 6/10 (24 November 2010)

In 1992, 24-year old Chris McCadless set off into the wilds of Alaksa where he died of starvation. Some press coverage presented him as a foolish young adventurer; but in his thoughtful book, 'Into the Wild', author John Krakauer showed how McCandless mostly knew what he was doing, and was perhaps unlucky to perish. Moreover, interpolating from McCandless's life and his own feelings as a young man, Krakauer inferred that Chris was engaged in a serious quest to find a meaningful way of living, a quest not completely invalidated by the fact that it ended in a particularly nasty death. Sean Penn's film of the book captures some of this, but it's a long movie (given that most viewers probably know the ending before it starts), and Penn makes choices that don't exactly betray the spirit of the book but which do simplify it, emphasising McCandless's family problems, making his experiences seem almost ecstatic, and replacing Krakauer's narration with a sister to whom he gives an almost gnomic sense of wisdom. I would also have been tempted to cast a less attractive actor in the leading role, and in other roles too: the weight of the story is undermined slightly by the prevalence of Hollywood looks. It's still an interesting as well as a tragic story; but I think the book told it better.