Wild

2014 drama

Rating: 11/20 (Jen: 14/20)

Plot: A woman walks the Pacific Coast Trail all by herself. It's wild!

I didn't like this woman. What am I supposed to be celebrating here? In the walking scenes, she's annoying and seems to think she's the center of the universe. One of her first encounters is with a farmer, and the interaction between the two of them was almost painful. It went a little something like this:

Farmer: [Farming/Tractoring]
Reese Witherspoon: Hey! Stop farming and look at me!
Farmer: What?
Reese: I'm walking the PCT [hated her more every time she said it this way] for really no reason at all, and I've planned very poorly and am really not equipped to do something like this. So I'm going to need you to stop what you're doing and take care of me.
Farmer: What? Are you serious?
Reese: Me! Me!
Farmer: Ok, but I'm going to do it while looking slightly rapey.
Reese: That's fine. I have a giant whistle. Well, obviously I have a giant whistle since, as you can see, I am carrying around everything I own on my back.
Farmer: [Rapey glances]
Reese: C'mon, man. Hurry it up. I'm hungry.

Then, we discover through all these fragmented flashbacks that Reese Witherspoon is a drug-addicted whore. But at least she had a good reason to start doing heroin and acting all slutty. Her mom died. That's probably what Elton John really meant when he was singing about the "Circle of Life" in The Lion King. I thought she became more and more unlikable as her journey went on and her past became more clear. Even though I knew it was impossible because this is based on the real Cheryl Strayed's book about her experiences, I was kind of hoping this would end like Into the Wild did. And I kept wondering how this movie would have been received if the protagonist would have been a male and exactly what kind of message this sends. Would a man who cheated on his wife repeatedly while in some sort of drugged haze be celebrated in the same way? Is this journey the accomplishment that it is because she's a woman and women are not expected to take on such endeavors? I think the message is really unclear here, and the movie's almost entirely devoid of drama.