Into The Wild

Based on the true story penned by Jon Krakauer,Sean Penn's new directional feature,INTO THE WILD, is about Christopher McCandless who,after graduating,decides to donate all his savings to OXFAM and hitchike to Alaska to live in the wild.

Dealing with such heavy dilemma's concerning one's life direction and purpose,the film could choose to adopt either a simple approach,thus abandoning the need to develop overly deep or complex ideas (which would be the emphasis of the alternative "intellectual" approach,which can often produce pretentious and unlikeable characters) and simply place the focus elsewhere.

In this case,the film has clearly chosen the former-preferring shallow,bite-sized arguments to tedious debate and conversation-characters merely announce their life goals and lessons often while remaining very vague about them.For example,the main character,Chris McCandless,renounces modern materialism/culture and preaches a life of unattached minimalism (going so far as to burn money) but isn't expressly depicted as the prudish smartass type-he's more of an Average Joe.The main character holds a delicate balance that strikes well with the audience-he's terrifically bright,but essentially a callous teenager-acting on impulses,practicalities come as second thoughts-a delicate,wonderful creation with a big brain,but even bigger heart.And Emile Hirsch is just the guy to play take on the role-he embodies every part of the character and makes it his own,doesn't overdo it and is magnetic enough to hold our attention all throughout.

The good thing about not placing too much emphasis on the arguments,is that the director has the advantage of using other elements-mainly the characters,heartbroken and conflicted,as well as visual images.Such as the use of vast landscapes (and there are many here),the sheer grandiosity of mountains and skies conveying messages about isolation & loneliness more effectively than any other medium can.Unfortunately,the film is constantly losing hold of this delicate balance-sometimes saying too little,other times too much-but when it does reach that right point it's absolutely stunning.

The first 2 chapters are full of BIG TALK,I was rolling my eyes practically every five minutes.I understand that McCandless strongly opposes materialism-but when his parents offer to buy him new car as a graduation present,he replies by asking them "Why do I need a new car?" with this harsh,hateful tone that reflects a naive,childish arrogance.He takes his ideas a bit too seriously,guards them too defensively and shuns everyone who disagrees by choosing to portray them as soulless capitalists with unhappy,pointless lives.And thisreason turns out to be the whole point he escapes the city and decides to spend the rest of his life living alone in some miserable,dilapidated van in Alaska.Anyway,this is all very annoying,but with the third chapter onwards once his motivations are set out we get to his journey and there's much less big talk (it's still quite persistent but reduced to small doses,thus less disruptive to the story).

What starts as a flaccid story brought down by the unbearably preachy narrative and the disorientating structure (the movements from present to flashbacks are utterly haphazard,some of the latter don't add much to the story),eventually matures into a heartful,captivating story.One that unravels like a melodic poem-patient,quiet,complete,utterly powerful.