The Solo Traveller
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Field Notes
Film review: Wild
By Geoffrey Williams
Wild. Rated MA 15+ (strong sex scenes and drug use). 115 minutes. Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée. Screenplay by Nick Hornby. Based on the autobiographical novel by Cheryl Strayed.
Verdict: Mother Nature fails to show up in this intimate story of survival and redemption.
Reese Witherspoon in ‘Wild’. Image © Fox Searchlight Pictures.
With rare candour and an unashamed sense of wanting to light the way forward for others who have suffered the torture of domestic abuse, the intimate details of Cheryl Strayed’s downward spiral after the collapse of her seemingly perfect marriage and the untimely death of her mother Bobbi (Laura Dern) result in a riveting survival story.
Similarly to ‘Into the Wild’ (2007), and ‘Tracks’ (2013), ‘Wild’ explores a solo traveller’s journey into the wilderness, where life as Strayed (Reese Witherspoon) knew it is supposed to be challenged by the experiences of the environment beyond her far from ordinary day-to-day existence. In this case, the wilderness is represented by the 4,286 km long Pacific Crest Trail that starts at Mexico’s border with the USA and ends at Canada’s.
Using an array of often rapid-fire flashbacks to the devastating experiences of the past, Vallée (who also edits brilliantly with Martin Pensa), has connected the various tormented conflicts from Strayed’s past into a near-perfect whole, to which Witherspoon and Dern (both of whom were nominated for Academy Awards® for their work) respond superbly. Dern, in particular, brings extraordinary truth through vulnerability to her performance that makes her painful exit from the story almost too difficult for it to recover from.
“Dern, in particular, brings extraordinary truth through vulnerability to her performance that makes her painful exit from the story almost too difficult for it to recover from.”
While the counter-intuitive rhythm provides the film with a deeply unsettling sense of time and place, a significant problem is that the hiking sequences remain mostly unremarkable. With few exceptions, there is little sense of impending danger or remoteness, to the point where the experience too often resembles a walk in the (national) park.
‘Wild’ was originally released in 2014, and is now streaming on Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, and Apple TV.
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Geoffrey Williams is The Solo Traveller Group’s Founder and Publishing Curator. This review was originally commissioned and published by the West Australian Newspaper Group.