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| Title: | Wild |
| Director: | Jean-Marc Vallée |
| Starring: | Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, Thomas Sadoski, Michael Huisman |
| Genre: | Drama |
| Runtime: | 1 Hours 55 mins |
| Studio: | Fox Searchlight |
| Certificate: | US: R UK: 15 |
| Release Date: | US: December 19 2014 UK: January 16 2015 |
| See If You Like: | Tracks, Into The Wild, The Way. |
Taking us on a long walk through the life of Cheryl Strayed and her 1000 mile journey across the Pacific Crest Trail, Reese Witherspoon (Walk the Line, Legally Blonde) gives her second Oscar nominated performance for Jean-Marc Vellee’s (Dallas Buyers Club) ‘Wild‘. Unfortunately, the film itself fails to do anything bold or moving, despite the potential in the material and the talent on board.
Adapted by Nick Hornby (Author of ‘About a Boy, and script writer for 2009’s ‘An Education‘) from the 2012 memoir ‘Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail‘, ‘Wild‘ tells of a woman’s journey through grief, addiction and shame, and her attempt to earn her salvation by walking from the US Mexican border to Canada.
Vellee steers us through the pieces of Cheryl’s life craftily, building a picture of the demons she’s trying to escape through jagged flashbacks interspersed with the trials and tribulations of her trek. Laura Dern (also nominated for supporting actress for her role) plays her mother – a tireless optimist struggling to gain control of her life after leaving her alcoholic husband and raising her two kids alone. Dern’s character brings a welcome warmth to an otherwise fairly cold story, and her honest performance makes it easy to see why her character has such a strong affect on her daughter’s world.
Witherspoon herself plays Strayed’s strength and resilience well, but there is a lack of emotional connection between her and the audience. Though we are to understand the journey changed her, there is not much shown to make this tangible. In fact, the outcome of her experience is only mentioned in a short line from our protagonist in a voice over. Though they may have intended subtly out of the performance those elements feel entirely undersold.
This isn’t the only part that feels lacking. Set within such gorgeous scenery of mountains and wilderness, the film should have been a visual playground. Instead, Velle hardly takes any time to linger on the mountain tops or be absorbed in the sounds and sights of nature. In fact, the majority of shots in which the setting can be observed, are only in the background of Reese Witherspoon’s rambling frame. This makes it easy to see her affect on her surroundings, as she encounters various people, creatures and physical obstacles, but fails to capture how the surroundings are affecting her.
Similarly, Hornby’s script makes stark use of quiet contemplation. While the inner monologue is certainly trying to provide a deeper insight into the character, it detracts from any real build of tension. As proven by films like last year’s ‘All is Lost‘, sometimes a lot more can be conveyed by a character’s silence than by hearing their every grumble and the song that’s stuck in their head. That said, the film’s soundtrack itself does present some charm, and is used as an effective memory tool in places.
There is a hint of a feminist approach (perhaps to do with Witherspoon’s producer credits influence) which gives the film a different feel to similar male centric solo journey’s of the past like Sean Penn’s “Into the Wild,” or Emilio Estevez’s “The Way.” However, Jean-Marc Vellee seems to lack the courage to truly delve into certain story aspects. The most glaring of which being the character’s experience of abortion, which is only mentioned in one scene and never expanded upon or confronted, perhaps from fear of alienating the audience with such a taboo. After making no attempts to shy away from difficult subject matters in last year’s no holds barred depiction of 1980’s AIDS patient Ron Woodrooff, this is a surprisingly unambitious choice.
The film is not without some merit. It shies away from certain expectations of the genre and is unapologetic and not exaggerated for the screen (in fact, the structure and series of events very faithfully follows that of the book), but despite telling a fairly relatable tale, Witherspoon’s character never quite manages to be likeable, nor her tale as gripping as it should be. As though only skimming the surface of everything it touches, the film is ‘almost’ great – but never quite pulls out that sucker punch.
