Wild shows Witherspoon at her best

The movie Wild was released in 2014, this biographical drama was directed by Jean-Marc Vallee and written by Nick Hornby. It was based on the memoir “Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail” written by Cheryl Strayed. The movie stars Reese Witherspoon as Strayed, a woman whose life is destroyed by the death of her mother. She finds redemption by walking a hiking route called the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), which spans 2,650 miles from Mexico to Canada through California, Oregon, and Washington.

 

Wild starts out with Strayed getting a hotel room for the night on the Mexico border near the start of the PCT. Over the course of her journey, she is persistently plagued by thoughts of her mother’s death and her own destructive choices that followed it. She does get married, but avoids her husband, preferring to cheat with men for whom she has no feelings, making the claim she prefers detachment. She uses drugs, creating situations from which her soon-to-be-divorced husband must rescue her, creating further friction in their relationship.

 

It is learned throughout the course of this movie that Strayed’s mother Bobbi, played by an energetic Laura Dern, developed lung cancer and died soon after her diagnosis. Strayed also has a younger brother whose grief also causes him to fall apart, especially when they have to shoot their mother’s horse because they can’t afford a vet. Death, drugs, sex, divorce, and an abortion all add up, and Strayed leaves Minneapolis firmly determined to walk the CPT.

 

Flashbacks reveal there were times Strayed was unkind to her mother: One stingingly arrogant statement is, “It must be weird for you, I’m just so much more sophisticated than you are.” To which her mother sheepishly replies, “I wanted you to be sophisticated, I just didn’t think it would hurt so much.” Additional flashbacks reveal Strayed in a filthy drug house, being robbed at knifepoint on a street, in constant arguments with her ex-husband, and recalling trauma from a rough childhood and absent father.

 

With no experience as a hiker, Strayed makes numerous dangerous mistakes and experiences a degree of bad luck as she walks the remote trail: She runs out of water, encounters wildlife and confronts dangerous people along the trail. She also finds kindness, a clean shower and a much-needed meal from a husband and wife who befriend her.

 

A mountaintop snowstorm forces Strayed to alter her course, and then to walk even further than planned to get back on track. The detour brings her to the Bridge of the Gods over the Columbia River on the Oregon/Washington border, and she emerges as a woman ready to forgive herself, but decides she’s exactly what her mother wanted her to be. Her mother’s favorite song is “El Condor Pasa” by Simon and Garfunkel; she hums it a lot during the flashbacks, and it follows Strayed on her journey.

 

This movie made $52 million on a $15 million budget, yet somehow many people I’ve asked haven’t heard of it. It would be a safe bet to call this Reese Witherspoon’s best work. Try this movie and be prepared to feel something, or at the very least to appreciate some striking and beautiful features of nature.