Well done movie about a complete waste of life.

Rating: 1/10 (26 June 2008)

WARNING: SPOILERS! Although I enjoyed some of the scenery, this movie was mostly a wast of time. It's a story of a self-important graduate from Emory University that goes on a journey of self-discovery. That would be okay, except his entire perspective on life is proved wrong at the end of the movie. He starts of by giving away all "his" college money, which would be impressive if it were actually his money (that he worked for) and not money his parents gave him. He then goes out West and hangs out with people and spouts off about society and how he's going to Alaska where he's going to live on his own, away from society. During this time his family is worried to death about him, and he doesn't bother to contact his sister (who he was apparently was close to), yet manages to write a letter to someone he just met after that someone goes to jail for selling pirated cable. He meets some burnout hippies and more self-important nonsense...until he gets to Alaska. MAJOR SPOILER: Once he's in Alaska the story could have been somewhat interesting except that not to long into his isolation experiment...HE DIES! Wow...I guess he really proved he doesn't need society, huh?
Every point the movie tried to make, about how free he is, about how society holds people down, about how money isn't necessary, is completely contradicted by the ending. He felt the need to give away all his parents money because "money is evil", yet worked on a farm when he ran out of money (he had kept $500 of his parents "evil" money) and couldn't wait to get his paycheck. He went off to live on his own because he doesn't need "society" bringing him down, yet shortly after leaving society he starved to death (after eating a poisonous plant). It seems he did nothing except get himself killed.
The story tries to make a thin excuse for Chris (the main character) and his behavior by showing how the parents fought all the time, but it really comes across as grasping as straws to explain narcissistic behavior.
I grew up in Atlanta, my father was a professor at Emory, and I went there. I've met dozens of self-important brats over the years (and been one of them at one time), people that reject society and its ways...until they need it. Had this guy just gone backpacking in Europe like most graduates he would have eventually returned, and inevitably become the yuppie he rebelled against like most college "hippies" do. But because he died, somehow he's a martyr. I guess in that sense he broke the cycle, but other than that he accomplished nothing. Oh, and just to add the final blow, I have to add how ironic it is when hippies drive around the country "to be free", all the while burning up gas and polluting the environment more than most people will in their lifetime.
Sean Penn does a great job directing, the actors are excellent, and the scenery is breathtaking. However, none of this is able to hide the fact that this is a movie about someone who wasted his life trying to prove something, and in the end proved the exact opposite. Yes, I know he was an actual person who really died, but I don't really care. I personally know lots of people who died (some of which also went to Emory) in much more tragic and meaningful ways.