Reese Witherspoon, as in other performances I have seen of her, is
brilliant in her performance of "Wild." I loved
this film. There were many moving moments but my rating of excellent
revolves around what I see as the centrifugal force from which all
other aspects of the film flow.
This film, a true story, of a woman whose life is shattered by the
death of her mother whom she adored and from whom she drew breath is I
think an example of endurance, strength, courage and the sheer will to
survive the near impossible obstacles nature presents hiking the
Pacific Crest Trail. The understatedly arduous hike of a woman with a
back pack perhaps weighing 75 pounds or more along the Pacific Crest
Trail to recapture her shattered life is amazing.
I thought the film a metaphor for many who have suffered, as
Shakespeare's Hamlet says "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune"
that life can convey but go on despite those hardships and sometimes
because of them. A road not taken or a life's love lost the
consequences of which can seem insurmountable until we do persevere. We
may learn from those difficult experiences; we may take another road
leading to other, perhaps, better things or those tragedies may have no
meaning at all. The film allows for that and it allows for us to see a
woman go where few women have gone to defeat the obstacles that nature
places in her path, greet impossible odds and overcome them. Some
people help her along the way and some do not but she bravely
encounters them and goes on.
I thought this film, too, a metaphor for life. We may encounter great
hardships, perhaps, even seemingly impossible ones but endure and
survive as she did. This film is not tied into a neat bow though. It
leaves the viewer the ability to draw our own conclusion as to whether
her journey down the Pacific Crest Trail and the arduous journey she
and many of us face throughout life is worth it or not. It appears she
did think it worth it and it seems most of us usually do.
