{"id":12194,"date":"2014-12-22T11:04:33","date_gmt":"2014-12-22T16:04:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/1morefilmblog\/?p=12194"},"modified":"2014-12-22T11:04:33","modified_gmt":"2014-12-22T16:04:33","slug":"wild-jean-marc-vallee-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/1morefilmblog\/wild-jean-marc-vallee-2014\/","title":{"rendered":"Wild (Jean-Marc Vallee, 2014)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Reese Witherspoon as Cheryl Strayed, in \"Wild\"<\/a>
Reese Witherspoon as Cheryl Strayed, in \u201cWild\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cOne day we\u2019ll wake to remember how lovely we are.\u201d \u2013 <\/em>Bruce Cockburn, \u201cWait No More\u201d<\/p>\n

I promise, I\u2019ll stop opening my reviews with song lyrics soon. But the words above are apropos for a few reasons: a) they illumine the core struggle of lead character Cheryl Strayed in Wild<\/em>; b) Strayed\u00a0is fond of leaving quotes by poets and folksingers in trail entry logs as she traverses the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT); and c) music infuses the memories that invade and accompany Strayed while she hikes.<\/p>\n

Director Jean-Marc Vallee\u2019s excellent film is based upon Cheryl Strayed\u2019s best-selling memoir of the same name, recounting her time spent on the PCT in California and Oregon. Woefully underprepared and ludicrously overpacked for such an expedition, Wild <\/em>opens with Strayed flailing desperately for a means to reorient a life that has spun, well, wildly out of control.<\/p>\n

As we quickly learn, Cheryl Strayed has indeed strayed far during the past four years. Reeling from the sudden death of her mother, Strayed has fallen into drug addiction and wrecked her marriage. Therapy hasn\u2019t worked, and her best friend is understandably exasperated with her. \u201cWhen did I become a piece of shit?!\u201d Strayed cries out, shortly before hitting the trail.<\/p>\n

Vallee\u2019s film succeeds in just about every way possible. After directing last year\u2019s award-winning Dallas Buyers Club<\/em>, Vallee had set the bar high for himself, but I believe this is an even better movie.<\/p>\n

In Vallee\u2019s hands, scenes of Strayed\u2019s hiking \u2013 across the Mojave Desert, through snowy foothills, and in Pacific Coast rainforest \u2013 are brilliantly spliced with remembrances both happy and awful. Vallee\u2019s insertions of these flashbacks convincingly mirror the clicks and whirrs of memory\u2019s machinery. A snippet of song on the radio casts Strayed into a childhood recollection of her mother playfully dancing to the same tune. Seeing a horse as she sets up her tent for the night triggers thoughts of her mother\u2019s beloved animal.<\/p>\n

\"Laura<\/a>
Laura Dern, as Strayed\u2019s mother Bobbi, in a flashback with a younger Cheryl<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Vallee is also lucky to have Nick Hornby as screenwriter for Wild<\/em>. Based on the handful of his books that I\u2019ve read (Juliet, Naked<\/em> is easily my favorite), Hornby impresses me with his proficiency at creating young-ish protagonists who are screwed up and awkwardly seeking self-redemption. Hornby\u2019s work here ranks with his best, with clever dialogue and believable self-talk that manages to be alternately humorous, affecting, and psychologically insightful.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t say I\u2019ve followed Reese Witherspoon\u2019s career too closely (she lost me after Legally Blonde<\/em>), but I would certainly not kvetch if she took away an Oscar for her portrayal of Strayed. Whether exhibiting physical distress from the bruising rigors of a long-range hike, wariness as a lone female encountering unfamiliar men on the trail, or the gamut of emotions sparked by maternal memories, I was sold on Witherspoon\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n

The other key player in Wild<\/em> is Laura Dern, as Strayed\u2019s mother Bobbi. Between Wild<\/em> and The Fault in our Stars<\/em>, Dern is on pace to win this year\u2019s award as \u201cOnscreen Mother Everyone Wishes They Had.\u201d In Wild<\/em>, Dern is equally persuasive in conveying Bobbi\u2019s resilience as a single mom who stays optimistic regardless of the challenges facing her.<\/p>\n

I confess to starting but never finishing Strayed\u2019s written memoir, but I love the story being told in this film. As a secular humanist, I find much that is admirable in its tale.<\/em> Knowing that willing and motivated people are capable of self-transformation, I appreciate that Reese Witherspoon doesn\u2019t hesitate to depict a character who has done some loathsome things, but is seeking to better herself and stop making the same mistakes repeatedly.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m also a believer in the value of stock-taking pauses. To borrow a bit of 12-Step parlance, Strayed uses the hike not only to remember and grieve, but additionally to take a \u201csearching and fearless moral inventory\u201d of the ways she\u2019s messed up and the people she\u2019s wronged.<\/p>\n

Strayed doesn\u2019t move to Step 5 and confess this to a Higher Power, however. There is a bit of God-talk in Wild<\/em>, but Witherspoon\u2019s character ultimately doesn\u2019t lean on an invisible being. She doesn\u2019t need to be born again, she mainly needs to recall the person she was in her mother\u2019s eyes.<\/p>\n

\"Strayed<\/a>
Strayed in the desert<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To paraphrase another female hiker in Wild<\/em>, Strayed learns to gather in the beauty of the world around her and let it fill her. Through Strayed\u2019s encounters with nature, animals, and people (sometimes generous, sometimes menacing) on the Pacific Crest Trail, she allows herself to be touched and transformed, appreciating more deeply her place in the universe. In a similar fashion, I found Wild<\/em> to be quite touching and moving, too.<\/p>\n

4.5 out of 5 stars<\/strong><\/p>\n

(Parents\u2019 guide: Wild <\/em>is rightly rated R, in light of its sexual situations, nudity, drug use,\u00a0and strong language. I would recommend viewing only by older teens and upwards.)<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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