Reese Witherspoon, adeptly portraying Cheryl Strayed, author of the 2012 memoir of redemption, Wild, often seems distractingly preoccupied with her backpack. Scripted by English novelist Nick Hornby, and directed by Marc Vallee (Dallas Buyers Club), the movie itself too often seems satisfied with rather meek surface things at the expense of going deeper.
Witherspoon is believable in the central role alright. Ever since the marvelous 1999 Alexander Payne film, Election, she has excelled at playing insuppressible characters. Yet something is missing in keeping Wild from going to the next level. Perhaps Hornby and Vallee were naturally stymied by the inherent challenges present in adapting a passionately written and very personal story.
Beset with heroin addiction and a recently deceased mom (Lauren Dern in an Oscar nomination-worthy performance), Strayed sets off in 1995 on an 1100-mile trek through California forest, desert and mountains. Interspersed with her struggle as a single woman hiker are flashback scenes with her estranged husband (Thomas Sadoski) and ones of her promiscuous affairs and drug taking. It’s all not uninteresting and occasionally poignant. Strayed at one point watches one of her boots fall into a canyon and proceeds to build makeshift footwear out of sandals and duct tape. Her determination extends to braving some close-call encounters with men hikers along the way. The whistle she carries to ward off unfriendly animals has no use against predatory men. Has the recovered addict merely replaced a new obsession, i. e., danger, for the heroin and casual sex?
We’re left to lo ponder a lot about Strayed. The wish here is that she were half as realized a character as Bobbi, her mom. Dern, always a very fine actress, outdoes herself here with a performance that excellently captures the various emotions associated with a single mom struggling with economic and personal poverty yet keeping a saint-like reserve for continuing to harbor the most vivid and alluring dreams. Her genuine affection for not just her daughter but for her very own existence, is palpable. Bobbi is a diamond in this not-all-that-rough, but certainly not-all-that-polished ode to a woman’s perseverance of human spirit. Strayed is a chip-off-the-old-block here but one whose resonance fades when placed side-by-side with her mom’s.