A walk outdoors often can do worlds of good for an ailing heart. With that in mind, Cheryl Strayed (Reese Witherspoon, who also produces the film) goes on a very long solo walk, 1,100 miles in fact, along the Pacific Crest Trail in hopes of turning her life around after the death of her beloved mother (played wonderfully by Laura Dern). The tragedy sent Strayed into a downward spiral of promiscuous sex and drugs.
Her motivations for going on the trip and her desperate need for redemption come to viewers slowly through fragmented flashbacks artfully woven into Strayed’s day-to-day struggles on the trail. This serves to bring a sense of poetry to the film—that poetry is very much present in the book on which the film is based, Strayed’s 2012 memoir, Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail (I liked the book better than the movie).
The spiritual solo journey is not a new theme, but in Wild, there is something very appealing about Strayed’s utter determination, even when it becomes apparent she is woefully underprepared for her trip, and the idea that a spiritual rebirth is possible by physical endurance and solitary time in nature.
Should You See It? Yes. —S.Z.
Viewed at Landmark Plaza Frontenac Cinema
