Wild Review
By David Kempler
Tame
Picture yourself as a young woman of 26. Your mother has recently died. You have just left a crumbling marriage. Your new boyfriend is a junkie. You are close to becoming a junkie, too. What's a girl to do? Cheryl Strayed's answer was to go for a walk. A long walk. An 1,100 mile hike on the Pacific Crest Trail that extends from the Mojave Desert to northern Oregon. Then she wrote "Wild", a memoir about her unusual trek.
Reese Witherspoon plays her in the film adaptation directed by Jean-Marc Vallée and it's definitely intended to be a deep exploration into Ms. Strayed's soul, as well as a coming to terms with her circumstances. The results of her internal and external journey is not the point and will come as no shock to anyone. What matters is her journey.
When we first see Cheryl, she is in obvious physical distress, specifically her feet are killing her, because she is wearing hiking boots that are too small. We watch as she pulls off one of her toenails to help alleviate her pain. This is just about as bad as it gets for her physically. In some ways she is very prepared for her trip, toting half of a camping store on her back. In other ways she is woefully unprepared. Her method of dealing with food while on the trial is poor and she has forgotten to pack some things that any of us would remember to take to a day at the beach.
Along the way of her long walk, Cheryl meets an assortment of people, some of whom are mildly amusing and one or two who could be classified as somewhat dangerous. Mostly, it's just a walk, though, albeit a very long one. Interspersed with her walking are lots of flashbacks, most of them loving looks at her mother, played by Laura Dern. Dern's character is a bit ditzy, but sweet.
Sadly, at no time during "Wild" was I even a little bit on the edge of my seat. It's closer to an easy-going travel television show than a drama, comedy, or any other type of genre. It's pleasant, but pleasant isn't nearly enough. I was far from wild about it.
