Wild – Movie Review

“Wild” quickly draws the viewer in with an opening shot of a beautiful mountain scene. The view is enhanced with the sounds of heavy sensual female breathing. You expect the opening scene to become sexual, but nope, the producers pull the old bait and switch trick on the movie goers and BAM, you are watching Cheryl Strayed, played by Reese Witherspoon, pull off a dead toe nail. You are now part of her journey, wanting to know more of the story. Why was she walking alone? Why was she hiking the Pacific Crest trail?

Cheryl Strayed embarked on an eleven hundred mile hike in 1995 from Mojave, California to the Oregon-Washington border. “Wild” is based on Strayed’s autobiographical best-seller published in 2012. One may find the completion of the thousand mile hike as the thesis. Some may find her lack of experience as childish, or you may envy her for having the guts to try something as bold as this. But for Cheryl, it was just a walk to clear her mind; breaking the downward life ending spiral of drugs and sex following the death of her mother.

Her hike is the timeless want to explore one’s inner-self, reflecting on the past and discovering the future. After the movie, as we left the theater, a friend who I dragged with me to see the movie, responded “Who hasn’t wanted to walk away from it all at one point in their life. But most people have too many responsibilities and can’t just leave.” And maybe that is the point, we all have thought about it, but how many of us truly find ourselves in need or want for something so grand. I applaud those who find the will and strength to leave the norm and embark on such journeys for whatever the reason that drives them.

Hiking eleven hundred miles with no real hiking experience or training is an amazing feat of determination and want. Or maybe when someone finds themselves truly at the bottom, a walk, even if a really long one, is what they need.

“Wild” tells the tale of self renewal more than of the accomplishment of the hike. And maybe that is how Cheryl saw it. For better prepared, stronger and trained hikers turn back defeated, while our heavy pack laden little heroine treks on till there is no more trail. At which time she has found peace, a new home and a new beginning. I believe the human race would perhaps be better off, if we all took some time for a ritual of physical endurance, philosophical reflection and spiritual cleansing at pivotal times in our lives.