Into the Wild

Ever wanted to walk out into the wilderness, feel the wind on your face and just breathe? It's not easy to find a wilderness these days, but even if you did, the experience wouldn't be the same if you had a return ticket in your pocket, or a people-carrier parked around the corner.

Christopher McCandless (Emile Hirsch, from Alpha Dog) didn't want to be a tourist in his life. He chose to travel the harder road. The first thing he does in Sean Penn's rich and moving film is turn down the offer of a new car, a graduation present from his parents (William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden). His rejection is curt and less generous than it might be, but we understand that he sees it as an induction into the materialistic, over-consumptive lifestyle of the older generation, and he wants none of it.

When his old car is caught in a flashflood and marooned, that's all the impulse Chris needs to start walking. He donates the remainder of his college fund to charity and sets out hiking across the western United States. Sometimes he bums a ride - that's how he meets Rainey and Jan (Brian Dierker and Catherine Keener), two flower-children who have gone to seed.

He works for a season bringing in the harvest for Wayne Westerberg (Vince Vaughn) up in Oregon. By now he's formulated the notion of Alaska in his mind… not city Alaska, you understand: Alaska, Alaska. He's not ready yet, but it's there in his head as firmly as his college friends' have their career goals all mapped out five years in advance. For now, he buys a kayak paddles down the Colorado River, all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico.

This is a true story - it's well known in the US, where a book by the journalist Jon Krakauer became a best-seller. As such, it presents several challenges to any screenwriter. Notably, if you're looking for dramatic conflict or even a little conversation, McCandless spent great swathes of time out on his own in the middle of nowhere. Even animals are scarce.

Penn circumvents the problem by inter-cutting those periods, mostly from later in the story, with encounters from earlier in his journey, brief flashbacks to his childhood, and voiceover narration from his diary and his sister's. He also turns a potential negative into a plus by virtue of Eric Gaultier's spellbinding cinematography and several especially written songs by Eddie Veder. "Into The Wild" must feature up towards a hundred different locations, and it's the kind of movie that sends you out wanting to explore. (Within limits.)

People have reacted to McCandless (or "Alexander Supertramp" as he renamed himself) with a mixture of admiration and hostility. For some his idealism seems impossibly naïve and solipsistic - fair enough, I suppose, though naivete seems a forgivable failing, and McCandless isn't insensitive to the people or things around him. Quite the opposite. Mainly he's seems very young, which may be the real reason for the anger directed at him.

Penn is considerably more sympathetic, and Emile Hirsh plays him with a good dose of charm. He takes palpable pleasure from his discoveries, not only in nature, but in physical exertion, philosophy and literature (hiking out into Alaska with a woefully light pack, his one luxury is a library of favourite books, including Tolstoy, Thoreau and Jack London). And too from meeting other folk: there are affectionate, instructive relationships here between Richard and four or five people along the road, most touchingly veteran character actor Hal Holbrook as OAP Ron Franz, who gives this crazy dropout a lift one day and ends up offering to adopt him. He doesn't understand McCandless either, but he recognizes the spirit in him.

For me this beautiful, open, heartbreaking movie is one of the films of the year - I hope you like it too.

Tom Charity
tom.charity@lovefilm.com

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