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'Into the Wild' explores the road less traveled
A man's rejection of civilization in the film elicits emotional highs and lows as rugged as his trail.
By Steve Persall, Times film critic
Published October 18, 2007
REVIEW
Into the WildGrade: A
Director: Sean Penn
Cast: Emile Hirsch, Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt, Jena Malone, Catherine Keener, Brian Dierker, Hal Holbrook, Vince Vaughn, Kristen Stewart
Screenplay: Sean Penn, based on the book by Jon Krakauer
Rating: R; profanity, nudity
Running time: 140 min.
In Floridian Friday
Read what Sean Penn had to say about Into the Wild at the Telluride Film Festival.
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Into the Wild had me sobbing for nearly an hour at the Telluride Film Festival because of its message and occasionally perfect deliverance.
A second look made writer-director Sean Penn's romantic slanting more obvious.
That didn't change my belief that this will be my favorite movie of 2007.
How can a film that affected me as only a handful have in my life not be?
Working from Jon Krakauer's book, Penn presents a majestic folly, a true-life road trip to self-discovery full of overlooked Americana and pioneer impulses. Penn presents the story of a doomed optimist named Christopher McCandless as a spiritual blessing.
You either buy into Penn's escapism or you don't.
I did.
Into the Wild wisely shuffles the chronology of McCandless' quest, piecing together the cumulative meaning of his life, which passes tragically and inspirationally before our eyes.
We see what sends him seeking something else: A ramrod father William Hurt and excessively doting mother (Marcia Gay Harden) expect their son to mimic their suburban success. College graduation is his final step in that direction before he donates or abandons anything he won't need to survive.
He even sheds his name, dubbing himself "Alexander Supertramp" to honor his life choice and rock 'n' roll spirit.
McCandless and his sister Carine (Jena Malone) are bonded by family secrets. He never calls. In excessively poetic voiceovers, she describes being left alone against parents and longs for his gumption. It is an overdone device, as are McCandless' messianic poses and his infallible knack for healing folks emotionally.
Penn traces the adventurer's actual route through flash-flood desert, raging rapids and frigid conditions from Atlanta to Mexico to Alaska. McCandless is played by the intrepid actor Emile Hirsch, in a daunting physical performance without much use of stunt doubles.
Hirsch's genuine presence makes Into the Wild believable, then special. He appears to be starring in a documentary, his face always open to the next new experience, even though he must have rehearsed.
This is an award-level performance that probably won't be noticed because it is so natural.
On the road, McCandless connects with others who also are missing something and who envy his wanderlust: a post-hippie couple (Catherine Keener, Brian Dierker) and jailbait (Kristen Stewart) at the hobo hangout Slab City; a garrulous North Dakota grain farmer (Vince Vaughn) and a reclusive retiree (Hal Holbrook, this year's Alan Arkin). The old man's conversion kick-started my tears.
Into the Wild is also superbly sensual, as cinematographer Eric Gautier captures nature's glory and its bruises with elegiac grace. Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder contributes songs that put into sound what McCandless must have thought on challenging roads. At Telluride, even that master of perilous locales and common emotion, Werner Herzog, hailed Penn's artistic eye and ear.
Eventually, any opinion of Into the Wild is colored by what you think of its impetuous hero.
I admire McCandless' rebellion against the status quo. That his quest ended with his death in the wilderness is tragically romantic, a grunge Don Quixote realizing that windmills sometimes fight back.
McCandless is also fatally foolishly. Rules mean nothing until he faces the laws of nature that can't be repealed. Call it a death wish or psychosis, but what McCandless did was crazy.
Penn's film straddles that dilemma. He obviously has his answer. He made an eloquent movie requesting ours.
Steve Persall can be reached at (727) 893-8365 or persall@sptimes.com. Read his blog at blogs.tampabay.com/movies.
[Last modified October 16, 2007, 17:58:15]
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by Rene
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10/18/07 03:53 PM
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Chris McCandless was an idiot. The movie may have merit on its own, but the actual backstory is not romantic at all.
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