"Wild"--A Review

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.