Face it, we all have dreamed at least once of casting off the shackles of our everyday lives, and running off into wherever the road would take us. It's hard not to fantasize about such things as we are confined to our mundane jobs. Very few people ever act upon this dream, but in 1990, a college graduate named Christopher McCandless decided to do just that when he realized he had reached his fill of modern society. He donated all the money he had, burned his Social Security Card, and ran away from the family that he felt had oppressed him for so long. His journey lasted two years, and that journey is now the basis for the remarkable new film,
Into the Wild. Writer-director Sean Penn (2001's
The Pledge) has created an unforgettable movie that joins the ranks of the growing number of great films being released at the end of the year.
The story is told out of sequence, and begins near the end of the journey when Christopher (portrayed in the film by Emile Hirsch) is taking shelter in an abandoned bus in the middle of a snowy wilderness. Flashbacks provide the answers that fill us in on the story thus far. As he graduates from college, he is not looking forward to the commercial and material-driven society he is expected to succeed in. His emotionally distant and always fighting parents, Walt (William Hurt) and Billie (Marcia Gay Harden) are further proof to convince him to leave the human race behind, and return back to nature. We follow his journeys and the various people that he encounters along the way, including a pair of aging hippies (Brian Dierker and Catherine Keener), a grain harvester (Vince Vaughn) who hires and befriends Christopher for a short time, an aspiring teenage singer (Kristin Stewart) who experiences her first love with Christopher, and an old widower (Hal Holbrook) who not only welcomes the young man as a friend, but even offers to adopt him.
Into the Wild is constantly walking a tricky and very thin line, particularly with the character of Christopher himself. He is a very self-centered young man who cuts off all ties from his family and friends, and sets off on his own. Throughout the film, we get a narration from his sister (Jena Malone) back home, who wonders not only where her brother has gone, but also what could have become of him, as he told no one of his plans. We see the pain and grief that the family goes through, and if done the wrong way, this could have easily made Christopher completely unlikable as a lead. While it's true that he did not grow up in the best of families, as evidenced in flashbacks to the childhoods of him and his sister, his decision to just cut all ties does seem rather harsh. Christopher is depicted as a dreamer, and perhaps a foolish one at that. Although he feels he is well prepared to face any danger or obstacle on his journey, he eventually soon finds himself in over his head, and even longing somewhat for the people he left behind. The last words that we see him write about his experiences near the end of the film tie into the ultimate message of the film - all the experiences in the world mean nothing if you have no one to share them with.
The film effectively combines two different genres, that of the road trip picture and that of the survivalist movie with man pitted against nature. The road trip part of the film reminded me of David Lynch's criminally underseen 1999 film,
The Straight Story. It shares the same laid-back tone that captures the beauty and feeling of seeing the country on your own, as well as the same episodic story structure with the different experiences and people that he meets along the way. The survivalist half of the story reminded me of the recent documentary,
Grizzly Man, which was also a film about a man who gave up just about everything he had to fulfill his passion about bears and to live in the wilderness. Both halves are equally compelling for different reasons. The different encounters that Christopher has along the way bring about some of the film's most memorable moments, the ones concerning the teenage singer and the old widower being the main stand outs. The second half of the film gives the film a somewhat darker and more desperate tone, as Christopher realizes that he will have to survive, hunt, and find various ways to keep his sanity as the loneliness and isolation closes in on him. The more laid back "travel" segments and the much more intense "survival" sequences form a completely satisfying film that manages to end on a very poignant note, bringing its ultimate message across in an effective and natural way.
Despite a running time of two and a half hours, the film never once lags, or loses our interest. There's very little to complain about here, and that especially goes for the cast. Although relatively new to leading roles, Emile Hirsch (
Alpha Dog,
Lords of Dogtown) completely nails the very complex character of Christopher McCandless. He does have a cocky and arrogant side to him, but he is not brash, stupid, or unlikeable. He comes across as a young man excited at the opportunities that lie before him, and as someone who feels he can overcome anything. Hirsch is forced to literally carry the entire movie almost by himself, and he does so with relative ease by making his character into a very realistic and sympathetic one, despite his sometimes single-minded nature. The rest of the cast don't get nearly as much screen time, but they are all effective nonetheless. The main stand outs include William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden, who are both very effective as his parents whose anger over his disappearance quickly turns to remorse. Vince Vaughn gets a chance to finally break free of the comical slob he's been stuck as for his past couple films, and deliver a fine performance. But the real performance to watch for is Hal Holbrook, who enters late in the film, and almost steals the movie away from Hirsch. His performance is worthy of a nomination for Supporting Actor come Award time, and his character is bound to stick with just about any viewer.
It's nice to see 2007 ending on a very high note so far, after so much mediocrity leading up to now.
Into the Wild is easily one of the great films of the year, and if it didn't have so much competition, may have shot right to the top. This is a wonderful movie all around that does what all films based on a true story should do - It made me want to know more about the actual person and the story that inspired the film. Walking into the film, I expected at least some beautiful scenery. I certainly got that, thanks to the beautifully shot nature photography from Eric Gautier. But I also got a wonderful story that took me through a broad range of emotions. The movie even ends on a perfect note, creating a completely satisfying experience from beginning to end. That in itself is a rarity.
1 comments
Face it, we all have dreamed at least once of casting off the shackles of our everyday lives, and running off into wherever the road would take us. It's hard not to fantasize about such things as we are confined to our mundane jobs. Very few people ever act upon this dream, but in 1990, a college graduate named Christopher McCandless decided to do just that when he realized he had reached his fill of modern society. He donated all the money he had, burned his Social Security Card, and ran away from the family that he felt had oppressed him for so long. His journey lasted two years, and that journey is now the basis for the remarkable new film, Into the Wild. Writer-director Sean Penn (2001's The Pledge) has created an unforgettable movie that joins the ranks of the growing number of great films being released at the end of the year.
The story is told out of sequence, and begins near the end of the journey when Christopher (portrayed in the film by Emile Hirsch) is taking shelter in an abandoned bus in the middle of a snowy wilderness. Flashbacks provide the answers that fill us in on the story thus far. As he graduates from college, he is not looking forward to the commercial and material-driven society he is expected to succeed in. His emotionally distant and always fighting parents, Walt (William Hurt) and Billie (Marcia Gay Harden) are further proof to convince him to leave the human race behind, and return back to nature. We follow his journeys and the various people that he encounters along the way, including a pair of aging hippies (Brian Dierker and Catherine Keener), a grain harvester (Vince Vaughn) who hires and befriends Christopher for a short time, an aspiring teenage singer (Kristin Stewart) who experiences her first love with Christopher, and an old widower (Hal Holbrook) who not only welcomes the young man as a friend, but even offers to adopt him.
Into the Wild is constantly walking a tricky and very thin line, particularly with the character of Christopher himself. He is a very self-centered young man who cuts off all ties from his family and friends, and sets off on his own. Throughout the film, we get a narration from his sister (Jena Malone) back home, who wonders not only where her brother has gone, but also what could have become of him, as he told no one of his plans. We see the pain and grief that the family goes through, and if done the wrong way, this could have easily made Christopher completely unlikable as a lead. While it's true that he did not grow up in the best of families, as evidenced in flashbacks to the childhoods of him and his sister, his decision to just cut all ties does seem rather harsh. Christopher is depicted as a dreamer, and perhaps a foolish one at that. Although he feels he is well prepared to face any danger or obstacle on his journey, he eventually soon finds himself in over his head, and even longing somewhat for the people he left behind. The last words that we see him write about his experiences near the end of the film tie into the ultimate message of the film - all the experiences in the world mean nothing if you have no one to share them with.
The film effectively combines two different genres, that of the road trip picture and that of the survivalist movie with man pitted against nature. The road trip part of the film reminded me of David Lynch's criminally underseen 1999 film, The Straight Story. It shares the same laid-back tone that captures the beauty and feeling of seeing the country on your own, as well as the same episodic story structure with the different experiences and people that he meets along the way. The survivalist half of the story reminded me of the recent documentary, Grizzly Man, which was also a film about a man who gave up just about everything he had to fulfill his passion about bears and to live in the wilderness. Both halves are equally compelling for different reasons. The different encounters that Christopher has along the way bring about some of the film's most memorable moments, the ones concerning the teenage singer and the old widower being the main stand outs. The second half of the film gives the film a somewhat darker and more desperate tone, as Christopher realizes that he will have to survive, hunt, and find various ways to keep his sanity as the loneliness and isolation closes in on him. The more laid back "travel" segments and the much more intense "survival" sequences form a completely satisfying film that manages to end on a very poignant note, bringing its ultimate message across in an effective and natural way.
Despite a running time of two and a half hours, the film never once lags, or loses our interest. There's very little to complain about here, and that especially goes for the cast. Although relatively new to leading roles, Emile Hirsch (Alpha Dog, Lords of Dogtown) completely nails the very complex character of Christopher McCandless. He does have a cocky and arrogant side to him, but he is not brash, stupid, or unlikeable. He comes across as a young man excited at the opportunities that lie before him, and as someone who feels he can overcome anything. Hirsch is forced to literally carry the entire movie almost by himself, and he does so with relative ease by making his character into a very realistic and sympathetic one, despite his sometimes single-minded nature. The rest of the cast don't get nearly as much screen time, but they are all effective nonetheless. The main stand outs include William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden, who are both very effective as his parents whose anger over his disappearance quickly turns to remorse. Vince Vaughn gets a chance to finally break free of the comical slob he's been stuck as for his past couple films, and deliver a fine performance. But the real performance to watch for is Hal Holbrook, who enters late in the film, and almost steals the movie away from Hirsch. His performance is worthy of a nomination for Supporting Actor come Award time, and his character is bound to stick with just about any viewer.
1 Comments:
Well said! I agree with everything you have written about this film. As a female, being the very emotional creatures that we are, I must say that although I didn't know exactly how the movie would end, I could see it coming, and I found it so sad that it lasted for days. I was actually depressed. In saying that, this is what a great film and Producer / Director is all about. The ability to make one feel is what makes it for me. :-)
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Ciz4cookie, at 2:49 PM
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