Wild

Beautiful scenery, a charismatic girl, Simon and Garfunkel, a meaningful story and emotions. If I were to recall something similar in type and genre, the last time I enjoyed a film like this was Penn's Into the Wild eleven years ago. The protagonist of that one had different motivations, but both have something in common: they are searching for themselves in a beautiful, purifying landscape. At the beginning I wasn't really hooked, the sudden cuts were a bit confusing, but as time went on I got incredibly engaged. I understood the main character, I envied her determination to do something with herself, and I'm so glad that Vallée didn't slip into cheap tropes, that some scenes that could have slid into a fatal ending were resolved in a different way and the clichés were avoided. And the way Vallée works with flashbacks is a masterpiece, too. And especially Reese – she put everything into the role, she even produced it herself; girl I admire you! Reese is just a God-given talent, like Vallée, I have yet to see a bad or even just mediocre film from him. (21/09/2018)

In retrospect, after Big Little Lies, it's easy to appreciate Jean-Marc Vallée's collaboration with Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern. A pleasant experience, despite the fact that the subject is quite unique. Whoever is tempted by this adventure on foot through the wilderness can also read the autobiographical book of the same name by Cheryl Strayed. (15/02/2020)

Better than Into the Wild, it works much better with the dosing of information and always has something to reveal. Reese is great and you never lose interest in her character, though many of the scenes are not precisely the most memorable (but many are enriched by “El Condor Pasa”). For me it’s also valuable as an educational documentary – I realised that I would go on a long nature trip only with a bunch of armed friends and accompanied by a car carrying beer, a coolbox and a grill. That would be proper wilderness. 75% (09/04/2020)

Though Wild is very well rhythmised in twenty-minute segments, due to the logic of the plot new revelations cannot reverse the course of events, but only contribute to our understanding of the protagonist. Especially in the final third, we could criticise the film for the fact that it suffers from a low level of action and structural repetitiveness. However, if we don’t judge it by the standards of mannishly linear “action” films, the narrative cyclicity with the returning of motifs as fixed ideas (instead of development of those motifs) is conversely what makes Wild a unique film that is both outwardly and inwardly feminist. 80% (07/03/2015)

A conventional travel drama about the search for oneself, which Jean-Marc Vallée is able to enrich with interesting flashbacks, most of the time. They develop several themed storylines that focus on the magnetic Reese Witherspoon. Her transformation from a frightened novice who isn’t able to lift her own backpack to queen of the PCT is so impressively experienced, so much so that one also forgets balancing on the edge of kitsch, a bit of amateurish symbolism and a stretched last third. Not that Hornby's "book-like" screenplay helps with its pronounced durability and depth, but as a pleasant spiritual trip through a beautiful landscape for one evening, it's absolutely okay. (06/03/2015)