WILD (USA, 2014) ***½
Distributor: 20th Century Fox; Production Company: Fox Searchlight Pictures / Pacific Standard; Release Date: 29 August 2014 (USA), 13 October 2014 (UK); Filming Dates: began 11 October 2013; Running Time: 115m; Colour: Colour; Sound Mix: Dolby Digital; Film Format: Codex; Film Process: ARRIRAW (2.8K) (source format), Digital Intermediate (2K) (master format); Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1; BBFC Cert: 15.
Director: Jean-Marc Vallée; Writer: Nick Hornby (based on the memoir “Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail” by Cheryl Strayed); Executive Producer: Nathan Ross, Bergen Swanson; Producer: Bruna Papandrea, Bill Pohlad, Reese Witherspoon; Associate Producer: Jeffrey Harlacker, T.K. Knowles, Cheryl Strayed; Director of Photography: Yves Bélanger; Music Supervisor: Susan Jacobs; Film Editor: Martin Pensa, Jean-Marc Vallée (as John Mac McMurphy); Casting Director: David Rubin; Production Designer: John Paino; Art Director: Javiera Varas; Set Decorator: Robert Covelman; Costumes: Melissa Bruning; Make-up: Kymber Blake, Tanya Cookingham, Miia Kovero; Sound: Mildred Iatrou; Special Effects: Bob Riggs; Visual Effects: Julien Maisonneuve, Jean-François Ferland.
Cast: Reese Witherspoon (Cheryl), Laura Dern (Bobbi), Thomas Sadoski (Paul), Keene McRae (Leif), Michiel Huisman (Jonathan), W. Earl Brown (Frank), Gaby Hoffmann (Aimee), Kevin Rankin (Greg), Brian Van Holt (Ranger), Cliff De Young (Ed), Mo McRae (Jimmy Carter), Will Cuddy (Josh), Leigh Parker (Rick), Nick Eversman (Richie), Ray Buckley (Joe (as Ray Mist)), Randy Schulman (Therapist), Cathryn de Prume (Stacey), Kurt Conroyd (Greg’s Friend), Ted deChatelet (Greg’s Friend), Jeffree Newman (Greg’s Friend).
Synopsis: A chronicle of one woman’s one thousand one hundred mile solo hike undertaken as a way to recover from a recent personal tragedy.
Comment: Story based on the memoirs of Cheryl Strayed who hiked across the Pacific Crest Trail in order to bring some sense to her life following the death of her mother and the breakup of her marriage. Witherspoon gives a wonderfully gritty performance as she comes to terms with the gruelling landscape and the challenges presented along her journey. We get to gradually understand her motivation through flashbacks of her life. We see her mother (Dern) leave an abusive relationship, taking her children with her and schooling them in how to embrace life. When her mother dies of cancer, Witherspoon’s life unravels and she goes off the rails. The experience of her adventure enables her to get her life back in perspective. It is a well-directed and acted movie, but the flashback scenes, whilst totally relevant to the story, are occasionally distracting and somehow detract from the portrayal of the ordeal of the hike. There are still touching and humorous moments along the way and the production team have managed to capture the beauty and danger of the wild.