overlong and precious, also marvelous cinematography and solid turn by Emile Hirsch

Rating: 7/10 (23 May 2008)

Christopher McCandless, in a manner of existential terms, had it all really. He graduated from college, had $24 grand in tuition, and a possible future law career. He could do anything he wanted with his life. So, he followed his passions, mixed perhaps with some escapist connotation involving a wounded family history, and left on a solo trek across the 'wild' of America, eventually on a quest to Alaska. At that point, he used what little knowledge he had to live off the land, hunt for game, and be one with nature while camping out of an abandoned 'Magic Bus' vehicle. It's here that we see the story, told in a somewhat typical non-linear form, take shape around the intellectual scope of a quintessential Thoreau wannabe.
In Into the Wild, Sean Penn's treatment of this man- who, eventually, died of poison-cum-starvation- this is a quest that is made interesting by the people that Christopher (sorry, Alexander Supertramp) meets along the way, which include some hippies in a van (an earthy Catherine Keener one of them), a very young Joan Mitchell type (Kristin Stewart), and blue collar worker (Vince Vaughn), and the proverbial 'wise old man' (Hal Holbrook, easily my favorite of the lot). They help bring a human dimension to what would otherwise be a guy, somewhat but not quite disillusioned by a particular American society, walking around in a state of being that calls one back to the discussion between Jules and Vincent over 'walking the Earth' in Pulp Fiction.
Is he just a 'bum', or is a true risk-taker? Or is it just all, as Christopher at one point admits, for a possible future book to come out of this? These questions arise, and some others, as Penn tries to question himself what kind of audience is coming to see his film. Will they easily pass judgment on a kid in over his head and not prepared for full-blown saga out of Jack London, or as someone who sadly lost the good fight against all reasonable responsibilities as a common, law-abiding citizen? Luckily, Penn did cast just right for us to want to be with this character, as Emile Hirsch has the qualities of strength and vulnerability so that he doesn't make him unsympathetic (which, for this sort of character, could be easy to do), but keeps him grounded and strong and, simply, just right for the part in this context.
The only problems come with Penn, as a director, taking flights of pretentious fancy with his style. Part of the problem with taking on a tale of going out to nature is there's the tendency for the visuals to outweigh some of the narrative strengths. It's reminiscent more of his work on the Crossing Guard (though not as much), and there are some passages and montages and those chapter breaks and yellow words streaming across the screen that do mark it as original but not necessarily driving much with the story. If it's poetry he was looking for, it's not achieved with the utmost beauty or grace, despite the marvelous moments that he and his director of photography grasp the many landscapes. And, as the greatest asset, Eddie Vedder on the soundtrack- who's songs might even be better than the movie itself- compliment the nature of the character but also sounding fine as stand-alone songs or guitar numbers.
So, take a trip into this moral conflict that strikes up Into the Wild as a worthwhile effort, if not a masterful one, and see what it's like to be young and escaping and living life to the fullest, if not the smartest.