Wild

Dir: Jean-Marc Vallée

2014

*

I found 2014’s Wild rather excruciating. Along with Kenneth Lonergan’s Margaret and Paul Haggis’s Crash, Wild has to be one of the most contrived films I’ve ever seen. I hate them all but I seem to be in the minority. Based on Cheryl Strayed’s 2012 memoir Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, it tells the story of a women (Cheryl Strayed) who decides to take on 1100 miles of the infamous 2650-mile trek as a form of self-healing and voyage of self-discovery. Strayed lost her mother, with whom she was very close, at a young age. She became depressed and self-destructive, turning to heroin and anonymous sex to help numb the pain. I’ll always have sympathy for those that have lost a loved one, especially at a young age and I can’t understand why people turn to drugs even though I haven’t. These people should be helped without judgment. A challenge (and indeed a great escape) can be the best form of escape. It can cleanse the mind and give a person time to think. I’m not a big fan of pop words such as ‘finding oneself’, ‘detoxing’ or ‘life-journey’ but I believe in what they are all referring to. One person’s 1100 mile trek could be another person’s painting, or poem, or fortnight off work visiting old friends, I get it and I have no problem with it. I haven’t read Strayed’s book though because, to be brutally honest, I don’t care. It’s her ‘journey’ after all and I don’t know her. I might be denying myself a masterwork of non-fiction but to be honest I have a huge list of books I want to read and Wild isn’t on it. I read Haruki Murakami’s What I Talk About When I Talk About Running and loved it, and sometimes you know when something can’t be beat. It’s okay though, “I can watch the film instead”, I thought. Strayed clearly had influence over the adaption, she and her daughter are in it after all, so the film makes me want to read her book even less. Did she want a fantastical version of her life rather than an honest one I wonder? I suppose I would, so it wasn’t too close to home, or creepy even, and I could still enjoy the money. I’m guessing this was the plan anyway. I’ve never seen such an unconvincing film in all my life. Reese Witherspoon was nominated for the Academy Award for best actress for this performance! Like the Academy needed more reasons to take them less seriously. Aside from the fact that Witherspoon looks around nine years younger than Laura Dern who plays her mother (because she is only nine years younger than her) the only emotions she seems to have mastered are screaming and looking vaguely upset. She’s Hollywood’s star pupil from the Joey Tribbiani School of ‘smell the fart’ acting. And it worked! Life imitating satire. I can believe that someone could turn to drugs and a self-destructive lifestyle after the loss of a loved one, I’ve seen it, it happens all the time but Jean-Marc Vallee has made it feel like a contrived notion, a ridiculous and unbelievable turn of events. I thought the direction was dreadful, full of clichés and Witherspoon’s performance was horribly bad. The feigned journey continued, with genius acts of method, for instance; Jean-Marc Vallee wouldn’t let Witherspoon read the instructions for her tent or her stove so that all the frustrations we see on screen ARE REAL. He wouldn’t let her look at a mirror either, so she could simply concentrate on the performance. She could have just acted, wore make-up and do all the things most successful actresses do but no, this was Reese’s 1100 mile trek, not Cheryl whatshername’s. Witherspoon has since said that Wild was the most difficult and intense film of her career, considering the sex sequences and the mood of the story. It didn’t stop her from plugging her own film (Gone Girl – she was producer) in certain scenes and, without wanting to sound nasty, it did feel like she was only going nude in a desperate attempt to be popular once more. She didn’t need to go naked and it added nothing to the film or indeed her integrity. I’m no prude but I admit I’m a little cynical about these things. I dare say she wanted a challenge but really, is nudity the best you could do? It’s not like it’s her first time anyway. If you can’t act like you’re frustrated, pushed to the limits or in turmoil without actually putting yourself through frustrations, pushing yourself to the limit and tormenting yourself, then I would argue that you’re not much of an actor. I feel I learned very little about Strayed, why she really fell apart and why she gave everything up to go on her walk. I don’t really know how she felt going through her journey, probably because we saw very little of it in the scheme of things but still, the relief of finishing the journey and making plans there and then really told me nothing of her mental state in reality. Did she really see a red fox wherever she went, did she really perceive every male see encountered as a possible rapist and did Vallee think that if he stuck enough beautiful landscapes into the film we wouldn’t be able to see that there is a huge void were there should be depth?