Blog: ‘Wild’
There’s this rabbit hole that I tend to fall into. I watch a movie and if I’m infatuated by an actor’s performance, I IMDb them right away and look through all of their other work. Usually, I’ll find something that I missed years ago that had epic ratings. In this case, that movie is Wild.
After I’d watched Walk the Line (which I was led to due to Joaquin Phoenix’s acting in Joker), I couldn’t stop thinking about the performances. Particularly, Reese Witherspoon’s because I claim she’s one of my favorite actresses but yet here I am again, unaware of these hidden gems she has partaken in that passed right underneath my nose. Wild came out at the end of 2014. It had two Oscar nominations, high critic ratings and generous viewer reviews. Jackpot. I love these little discoveries and I want you to know about them, too.
Wild is a story about a woman named Cheryl Strayed who takes off on a 1,100-mile hike on the Pacific Crest Trail after experiencing a few tragedies in her life. Now, this is based on a true story and the real Cheryl Strayed picked Reese Witherspoon to portray her, pretty cool huh? I guess she had good instincts because Witherspoon was nominated for one of the two Oscars. This movie is captivating. It reminded me a lot of Emile Hirsch’s film Into the Wild but Cheryl isn’t a rich kid who gives away all her money to go live in the wilderness only to die in an abandoned van after eating poisonous berries. Be more like Cheryl.
Cheryl’s single mother died from cancer a couple of years prior to the hike, and she fell into a dark place of heroin and adultery. To put it plainly, she needed to find herself. She needed to find the woman her mother knew she would be. There are many moments during the film that have you holding your breath. As women, we are told not to get into cars alone with men we do not know but when you’ve run out of food and have no other choice, welp that’s that. There’s also some nerve-wracking scenes of (wo)man vs. nature that had me clenching my jaw. Watching this, I couldn’t imagine making this crazy journey, but it did make me want to go on a uh, less severe hike, ya feel me?
The cinematography is beautiful! And for the majority of the film, they mostly used natural light which is also beautiful. Really does make you want to go for a hike I’m tellin’ ya. So glad I live in the concrete jungle… Anyways. For those of you who don’t know about the PCT, it runs from Mexico all the way through California, Oregon, Washington and up to Canada. It’s around 2,600 miles in length and passes through 25 national forests and seven national parks. You don’t have to hike the entire thing (even though some do and can take up to five months to do so), there are areas where you can hike just a few miles or in Cheryl’s case, 1,100 miles of it.
Not only is this movie worth a watch, but I learned that something new I’m usually talking about. And if you love Reese Witherspoon as much as I do, this film is just another example of what an extraordinary actress she is.
Wild is available for rent on Amazon Prime Video.
