"Happiness is only real when shared."

Rating: 9/10 (9 February 2019)

"Into the Wild" is the inspirational albeit heartbreaking story of a brilliant young man named Christopher McCandless who abandoned the premise of a wealthy existence to follow the footsteps of his hero Jack London and answer the call of the wild. He eventually died of starvation after two years of a journey that ended in Alaska where he spent 110 days in a bus lost in the middle of an ancient mining town named Stampede Trail. The bus is still there with Chris' remaining belongings, his diary and his aura.
It's a sad story but not a tragedy. Chris chose his destiny and gave it its full meaning. He didn't know what he was seeking but knew what he was rejecting, believing the journey mattered more than the destination. Such a story called for a movie and of all directors, it was Sean Penn who adapted the book of writer and mountaineer Jon Krakauer, rightfully believing the material would still find a profound echo in people's hearts 15 years after Chris' death. His movie is not only served by a breathtaking cinematography and a haunting performance by Emile Hirsch, it also benefits from a clever editing, ironically the only category to be Oscar-nominated besides Hal Holbrook's supporting performance.
The editing matters because one can't look at Chris' odyssey as something linear, the film opens by swinging back and forth between the "Magic Bus" discovery and family flashbacks, respectively the "beginning of the end" and "the end of the beginning". The non-linear storytelling creates the same startling puzzlement as the people who met Chris the adventurer when they discovered where he came from: a wealthy family with two highly educated parents (William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden) who tried to shape his future with their "present" as a model. So when we see this young hiker barely accepting a pair of boots before getting in the middle of the wild nowhere, we know something failed in the McCandless' educational project.
The contrast is even more striking as Hirsch suffers from the same cruel syndrome than many young men who, beardless, look ten years younger despite the fact that the stories are set only two years apart. So we can see both the plant of rebellion growing and the roots in Chris' past. And Penn chooses the right way to relate the process, Chris couldn't be the narrator, he's a man of action and his actions speak for his rejections: refusing a car as a gift, gives his entire $24,000 savings to charity, burning money, cutting his credit card, everything that superficially defined him.
So it's through his sister's monologue that we understand what sowed the seeds of his non-conformist: his father's infidelity, domestic violence and the way his parents' materialistic achievements alienated them from their two children and painted a forever disgraceful portrait of success in the mind of Chris (the sister is played by Jena Malone). So Chris expressed his disagreement many times until it was time to walk the walk. So we can clearly see the initial motives and the end of the journey.
And the middle-story is indirectly told by someone who only left behind him a series of encounters with strangers that Krakauer could track in order to reassemble the pieces of the puzzle. Chris didn't write anything until he came to the bus because it represented the edge of his adventure, the real challenge he was seeking. During the last two years where he was still looking for himself, he met a couple of hippies (Brian Dierker and Catherine Keener) a farmer (Vince Vaughn), a couple of Danish tourists and finally Hal Holbrook as Ron Franz.In every case, something immediately caught their hearts, they shaped his vision but so he did with his genuine sincerity, brave approach to life and optimism. And though Hirsch gave a great performance, bizarrely snubbed, the real Chris looked even more sympathetic.
Speaking from experience, I had my share of friends in business school who were acting like pseudo rebels, rejecting the comfort of modernity, career, family and wealth, only to get back in the ranks once the diploma obtained. Young privileged ones like Chris are numerous but a few of them dare to act according to their thoughts and that's why Chris immediately cuts to our hearts, he's a man of his word. And go figure why, I was thinking of Anne Frank while finishing the film. Maybe it's because I saw the film recently but here are the points of comparisons.
Both died in their youth and became universal symbols of a spirit resisting the pressure of the world and seeking honesty, purity and peace. Both had a diary they couldn't finish. Both depended on the kindness of people and it's a real shame for Franz who couldn't adopt Chris (Holbrook melted my heart in his last scene). Finally, both have universal posthumous legacies and we can only picture them with a smile on their faces. Of course, Anne didn't chose her life but she lived tragedy with her family while Chris lived happiness he couldn't share.
Happiness indeed. Chris' last picture shows him with a smile on his face, looking gaunt like a Concentration Camp survivor but smiling nonetheless. He didn't want to die, he might have expected it when he realized he couldn't get back anywhere and never let enough hints to be found, but his survival journey into the wild made him a model for young people who felt an instant need to discover themselves while discovering the world.
Chris could learn a few things before getting back and coming to terms with his family but he didn't have time to practice what he learned. Still, what he lived taught the world a lesson, a practical one about survival, a universal one about being true to yourself and a timeless one about dreams and happiness, achieving dreams is important but dreaming alone can be dangerous, if not lethal.