Wild

Hollywood's relationship with writing strong women characters has been weird. Some writers get it. Ellen Ripley from the Alien franchise (mainly the first two), Erin Brockovich from the self-titled movie, Erin from You're Next ... these are, in my opinion, wonderful examples of strong women characters, because they understood the key is to write a STRONG CHARACTER FIRST. They can espouse women-first values, they can fight for women's rights, but first and foremost, they should be a well-rounded character on their own. Give your woman depth and a core around which to build, and anything she says or does will have value. Because if not, you get the half-baked Carol Danvers from Captain Marvel, who doesn't have enough depth to make her strength seem admirable. Or, worse, the cast of Black Christmas 2019, who are little more than bullhorns for a message (and seem more like a mean-spirited satire of feminism than a honest portrayal). Cheryl Strayed, the main character of Wild, is one of the best examples of a strong, well-written female character. That strength comes from probably the most honest place it could: reckoning with and owning up to one's decisions and mistakes, and finding the strength to live with them with sorrow, but not regret. Some of the criticism of the movie I see points to how we see far less of Cheryl's 1000 mile hike up the Pacific Coast Trail than one would think, and that it flashes back too much to her past. But that misses the point of the movie; what she encounters on the hike isn't the point (besides, you really wanna see her mess with that tent over and over again?). The hike is how she's forcing herself to confront herself and her choices. The hike is a window into her, and we need to see that past and how she reckons with it far more than we need to see the details of a near three month hike. This is a spiritual quest, not an episode of Man vs. Wild. Reese Witherspoon does a marvelous job making Cheryl sympathetic without being pathetic. She lost her mom, who was her emotional core, and spiraled into drugs and destroying her marriage with numerous affairs. The movie never makes Cheryl a victim; it says she made these choices, and they're terrible and tragic, but they're also hers, and over the course of the movie, she owns it. Reese absolutely disappears into Cheryl; showing the fear of both herself and the journey she's set upon, and how overcoming both is daunting. This is, by far, Reese's best performance. It is the most human. I believe this woman, and I feel every moment of her journey, despite never having lived the life she did. The direction is also amazing, capturing the beauty of the wilderness of California and Oregon. but also, when it needs to, capturing the claustrophobia of daily life and poor personal choices. The score is a mix of your standard orchestral arrangements and popular music, both used effectively, and more importantly, held back when the moment needs it. Most of the music, in fact, occurs during the flashbacks to what brought her to the hike, leaving the scenes in the wild to stand on their own. The flashbacks are another criticism I've seen, and I disagree with it; if this movie had been told in a linear fashion, it wouldn't work. It would be watching a woman destroy her life, then go on a long walk. By seeing it in flashback, the audience sees what she's thinking about at that moment, what part of her life she's confronting, be it wonderful or terrible. That back and forth is crucial to her journey, and us as witnesses to it. Keeping it from a full five are a number of tiny things, nothing critical. There's a few moments where the editing gets a little choppy. The confrontation with the two good ol' boy hikers feels like it's ramping up to something gross, and considering it happens so late in the movie, it feels unnecessary (I know this was based on a real person, but that doesn't mean everything needs to be in the movie). And the ending is a little klutzy, with her reaching her goal and narration from future Cheryl saying what will happen. There's voiceover throughout the movie, but it serves as internal monologue, so the switch to outright narration to give a what-happened-after wrap-up is inelegant. Again, these are minor quibbles, and should not deter anyone from watching it. The movie is a journey worth taking. It is the kind of quiet, honest character study you don't see often, and it never feels like a Deep Movie or a Movie With Something To Say. It doesn't have to scream a message from the mountaintops. It, like Cheryl, is what it is, and both its and her strengths come from that.