A long, difficult but satisfying and captivating journey

Rating: 8/10 (12 March 2008)

I don't like judging actors and filmmakers by their personality. Tom Cruise may be completely insane and his constant pushing of his Scientology agenda can be excruciating, but that doesn't mean that he isn't a fantastic actor and that I won't watch and enjoy hi s movies. So Sean Penn may be sociopathic, and he may push his political agendas too strong, but he's also one of this generation's most intense and talented actors. I haven't seen The Crossing Guard, but Into the Wild certainly proves that Penn is an almost equally talented filmmaker as well.
Surprisingly, Penn employs many unorthodox filming techniques and gimmicks characteristic of the much younger post-modern film-making generation of today. From shaky zooms to really creative use of camera angles and positions to jump- and flash-cuts to text scrawling across the screen. Notice how effectively Penn uses cheap-looking video footage to portray Christopher's brief fantasy sequence involving him reuniting with his parents, or Penn's shocking and very risky use of breaking the fourth wall. It is a kind of wild, loose and visceral style of film-making that is used skillfully to portray that kind of no-strings-attached wilderness that the film portrays in the first place.
Penn smartly chooses to employ these elements, as they are exactly what his sprawling, epic, lengthy creation needs for variety and to keep his audience captivated. He certainly provides us with a lot to work with  his film is even divided into chapters, like a novel and less like a short and to-the-point story. The story of Christopher McCandless is one of epic proportions: encompassing two I'd imagine very eventful years, even after selecting a common theme to focus on Penn ends up with a movie scraping at a two-and-a-half hour runtime. But while the crux and initiative of the film is the true story of McCandless' fascinating and unbelievable ascent (or descent?) into spiritual freedom by ridding himself of his money and possessions and eventually launching himself into the wild to live completely off of the land, Penn instead chooses to keep the focus on very particular aspects of Christopher's journey, specifically his relations with other people.
Indeed the only chapter depicting Christopher completely alone is the final part of his journey on the "Magic Bus" in the Alaskan wilderness, which Penn splices and intercuts with the chronological series of events that unfolds. The rest of the chapters depict Christopher's encounters with various people and characters along his journey, and although the chapters are named aptly emphasizing the change Christopher undergoes with these encounters, the main feeling we get is just how much Christopher leaves his mark on these people, and not the other way around. He helps mend the hippie couple's love life, he finds a new friend in Wayne, and finally he gives both the optimistically young Tracy and the near-the-end old Ron Franz something to hope for. Even Christopher's parents are drawn closer together by his leaving them behind. What's wonderful is that while Christopher's hokey material-free philosophy may seem immature, naïve and perhaps a bit self-destructive, it is in these scenes where he encounters the various characters along the way that we can see his true selflessness, and it is awe-inspiring. The fact that Christopher's epiphany in his dying moments is that "happiness isn't real unless shared" just further goes to prove just what a lasting impression these encounters and relationships with various other people are what kept him going.
On a more superficial plane, Penn, perhaps employing the immense clout he has around Tinseltown, has assembled an impressive ensemble cast to fill these small supporting roles of the characters Christopher encounters along his journey. From absolutely devastating performances by Oscar winners Marcia Gay Harden and William Hurt as Christopher's worried but suffocating parents to intelligent turns from the likes of Vince Vaughn and Catherine Keener, who plays a surprisingly sweet and happy-go-lucky character similar to the one she portrayed in The 40-Year-Old Virgin and which serves as a total opposite to the kind of manipulative femme fatales she usually plays, like her Oscar-nominated turn in Being John Malkovich. Kristen Stewart plays young, naïve and desperate to its fullest extent, and Hal Holbrook gives the opus performance near the end of the film, providing it with a very important emotional axis. But the centerpiece performance is that of Emile Hirsch; embodying McCandless, he manages to perfectly capture his youthful wonder and perhaps even naivety and delivers a performance of immense power and intensity, including startling and gutsy physical transformations surprising for an actor so young. Indeed it seems like just yesterday that Hirsch was underage and starring in teen comedies like The Girl Next Door: I think it's safe to say that not only is Into the Wild Hirsch's unofficial transition to acting maturity, but also that it proves he is one incredibly talented performer.
In all, Into the Wild is a long, difficult but ultimately very satisfying and captivating journey. Penn takes us down a long road and populates it with interesting characters and unique, unorthodox film-making techniques. And it's all accompanied by a great soundtrack including wonderful songs by Eddie Vedder that perfectly capture the spirit of the film. It is a unique film that takes many risks, and it all pays off wonderfully. Penn has more than proved his directorial worth.