WILD

US, 2014, 115 minutes, Colour.
Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, Thomas Sadowski, Gaby Hoffmann.
Directed by Jean- Marc Vallee.

How well an audience enjoys this film will probably depend on how quickly it can identify with the central character, Cheryl Strayed. At once we see her on a mountain, pulling off her boots, footsore, the boots being knocked over and careering down the mountainside, to her pained exasperation. The question is what did she do, go down, recover the boots, keep walking…? But, the screenplay does not return to the scene at all, so no specific answer.

But we do get answers, at least some of them, to why Cheryl was in the wilderness at all. The film is called Wild, a focus on the wilderness that Cheryl travels through along the west side of the United States. As the flashbacks increase in number, we see that her life prior to this trek had been very wild at times.

It is the Pacific Crest Trail, PCT, that Cheryl decides to walk along, over 1000 miles, from the Mexican border, through the Mojave Valley, to the mountains of California, into Oregon and into the North. It becomes pretty evident, almost immediately, that she is not well prepared at all for this trek, which may make some audiences who like things organised, rather irritated, especially when it appears she bought the wrong gas that her stove and she has to eat cold mash for several days before she gets to a house where she can get some help.

This, perhaps, is the point. We learn from the flashbacks that she has gone on this walk in some desperation, the breakup of her seven-year marriage (all her fault) and the death of the mother whom she loved dearly. At the beginning, she does not really know why she is walking except that she wants the time, to be alone, to reflect, to remember, to read some poetry, to write in a journal. And that is what she does – and not always engrossingly for the audience. It is a long walk for her, and for us.

The film runs for almost 2 hours but this reviewer for one, would have appreciated some longer time given to flashbacks because there are just glimpses, not always connected, the audience trying to work out the causal link in the episodes in her life, but not enough information or dramatisation being offered. We can feel sorry for her ex-husband, both of them getting tattoos to celebrate their separation, but he still loving her, she going off on promiscuous adventures, and yet he had a letter and a parcel for her at the key posts along the Crest Trail.

There are a number of flashbacks to Cheryl and her little brother and their relationship with their mother, most engagingly played, optimistic even in physical abuse, by Laura Dern. She had married an alcoholic and abusive husband, had left, brought up the children, shown them great love and tenderness. At one point, she goes to college to study, exhilarating by the amount of learning before her, coping with the rather prim and judgmental Cheryl at this stage of her life. How Cheryl goes off the tracks is not explained, quite wild, casual affairs, one night stands, led into drugs, resolving not to inject heroin but doing it, doing a waitressing job, with sexual favours out the back of the diner. These aspects of the character are quite clear.

Cheryl is portrayed by Reese Witherspoon (and the actual Cheryl Strayed accompanied her to the Golden Glowed Globe awards). She gives it all she can, having to show a rather wide range of emotional responses, in her past, in her grief for and memories of her mother, in her uncertainties along the track, the physical hardships, the encounters with male walkers and some hunters, mainly fearful. She does have some friends, especially a good friend played by Gaby Hoffmann, who challenges her and who supports her.

And then the film ends, with some verbal information about what would happen to her in the coming years, all of it positive, marriage and family and the writing and publishing of a successful book.

Some audiences will enjoy Cheryl’s history, her response to challenges, the physical and psychological and emotional impact of her walk. Others may find it something of an endurance, not just the walk, but in the puzzle about Cheryl’s character, what really was the influence of the past, why she went so wild, why exactly she went, so unprepared, on this walk – which, in fact, did change her life.

1. A true story, the 1990s, the author and her book? The trek, her personal journey?

2. The title, the wilderness and its range? Cheryl and her past wild life?

3. The Pacific Crest Trail, the different terrains, the Mojave desert, California, the mountains, Oregan and the forests? The beauty of the photography?

4. Cheryl within these landscapes, the introduction, her boots and her sore feet? walking, the long time, endurance? the pack, the food, the wrong gas, the
water and the cleansing tablets, the various stops at the stations? The musical score?

5. The people she met on the track: Greg, the older woman and her personal journey, Frank and her fear, his help, his wife and the discussions, the shower and the meal? The old man who went up to look after the walkers? The hunters? Her fear of them? The man with the posters and the casual sexual experience? The grandmother and the boy and his singing? The song, the Grateful Dead? The ranger, his helping her, wary of the men, the three men and their playful response? A cross-section? Their influence on her?

6. The title, Cheryl as wild? The variety of flashbacks, the particular points of insertion? Along the way? Her memories? The two children with their mother, happy times in play, the father and his violence, their mother taking them away, returning? The happy times, ultimately fleeing? Going to the University, Cheryl ignoring her mother in the corridor, the talk afterwards? her study, the classes, poetry? The serious discussion with her mother? The end and the explanations – and her suddenly being married, seven years, her promiscuity, the divorce, getting attached to dealers, the experience of drugs, as a waitress and the clients and one night stands?

7. The effect of the divorce? Paul and his character, devotion to her, his new partner? Her mother, the sadness of her death?

8. Cheryl’s motivations, the discussions with her friend Amy? Paul and his letters and parcels? Ringing about the boots and their delivery? Her continuing on?

9. The cumulative effect, the initial poor organisation, her learning, the long distance walking, achievement? Standing on the bridge, her talking about her future, marriage, children, the writing of the book?

10. Audiences identifying with her and her personal journey?