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A+ |
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| Story: |
A+ |
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| Acting: |
A+ |
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| Direction: |
A+ |
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| Visuals: |
A+ |
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Honest, compassionate, exquisite: The Year's Best
by C. Andrew (movies profile)
Jul 12, 2008
69
of
79 people found this review helpful
Sean Penn's brutally beautiful "Into the Wild" will capture the soul of any true lover of nature, adventure, and mystery. Contrary to what some reviewers have expressed, I did not see Penn's adaptation as idolizing Christopher McCandless, the film's central figure who completely cuts himself off from his dysfunctional family to pursue a life in the wild. Rather, McCandless (beautifully portrayed by Emile Hirsch) is a real person, following the call of the wild in his heart, while, at the same time, punishing his family and deftly avoiding the deep emotional connection that he realizes, too late, is his ultimate goal. Chris's journey is at once exhilarating, heartbreaking, devastating, and redemptive. And Penn's incredibly honest and realistic script does a great service to all of the characters involved. There are no villians, only human lives, striving for some sense of peace, identity, and meaning.
The acting is flawless. Besides the aforementioned Hirsch, everyone is spot on. William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden take what could have been caricatures and flesh them out, making them gut-wrenchingly real. We feel the ache of longing that Jena Malone as McCandless' sister has for her wandering brother. Catherine Keener and Brian Dierker hit just the right notes as a hippie couple with whom Chris bonds. But Hal Holbrook almost steals the movie from Hirsch as an older man whom McCandless befriends prior to his ultimately fatal trek into the Alaskan wilderness. Holbrook should win this year's best supporting actor Oscar, and Hirsch just must deserve that title for leading actor.
The photography is breathtaking. We are right there with Chris. The music sets the right tone of reflective wistfulness and melancholy. And, perhaps best of all, the sweet love of God touches this movie in a miraculous and profound way that renders what could have been a dispiriting and somewhat pointless conclusion, transforming it and all that has come before into a beautiful picture of the wayward soul's spiritual journey back to the One who formed it.
The year's very best. Period. |
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