Sean Penn's breakthrough as a director

Rating: 8/10 (3 December 2007)

With "Into The Wild" Sean Penn achieved something that only few actors from his mold have succeeded in: he proved himself a worthy director independent of his acting laurels. "Into The Wild" is just so good, that it blows the last bits and pieces of doubt away. Penn is not only directing this beautifully, he also managed to write a screenplay for a three hours movie about a guy who basically just wanders around in the wild and then starves, without ever slowing the movie down so much that it becomes boring. Sure, you have to be in the mood for this (and it's best to see it in a cinema, I guess), but if you really let yourself in for "Into The Wild", you'll be deeply touched by the story of this remarkable young guy who chose to live by his own rules and by his own rules alone.
There's not one weak link in the cast and Sean Penn directs all the actors to perfection. Emile Hirsch carries the movie. His resemblance to the real Christopher McCandless is uncanny as evidenced by a self portrait of McCandless at the end. What Hirsch did for the role - losing 40 pounds - is reminiscent of Christian Bale's engagement for "The Machinist" and speaks for the soul he put into his performance. All the supporting actors - in fact everybody other than Hirsch is a supporting actor here - are great as well: Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt, Catherine Keener, Vince Vaughn and the wonderful Hal Holbrook. Last but not least Eddie Vedder's soundtrack adds a lot to the haunting atmosphere of the movie.
"Into The Wild" is something that won't let go of you after you've left the cinema and it might actually make you rethink your principles in life. I applaud Sean Penn for realizing his vision so well and hope to see more of him in the future. By him, actually.