Movie Review -- Wild

I rarely bother to write movie reviews any more but I have to get my thoughts about Wild off my chest.

Full disclosure -- I've only hiked short bits and pieces of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT). I have done about 200 miles of the Appalachian Trial (AT) and read all three books by Skywalker (Bill Walker) who did the AT, PCT, and Camino Campostela.

That said, Wild is about a single woman who hiked about half of the PCT. What you can expect is at least half of the movie full of flash backs, many only a second long, to various points of her life. Much of the parts on the trail are her writing journal entries or whatever she is thinking about. There is little context about the physical trail itself. Then again, a movie just showing a woman walking down a trail might not be very cinematic.

I have a feeling whoever directed this movie is a huge man hater. Just about every experience with men along the trail suggested the men are a bunch of stalkers and rapists. Considering that the main character banged just about every man she met before going on the hike (why don't I ever meet women like this?) suggests she isn't the man hater but whoever made the movie is.

Having read the books mentioned above and having done about ten days on the Appalachian Trail I can say that men on the trail outnumber women by about 20 to 1. This was accurately depicted in the movie. However, those 20 men will be falling all over themselves to be within smelling distance of what few women are on the trail. They will deliberately go slow to stay with them or speed up if they hear one they haven't met yet is ahead on the trail. This is evident by log books they keep in the shelters and significant trail markers.

The character in Wild was almost always hiking alone which said to me she must have either been extremely unlikeable or had to be very forceful about telling the men to get lost. She did meet one woman along the way in the movie but the movie doesn't say why they didn't hike together. The character in the movie seemed basically nice so I feel there was some omission on the part of the director on why she was almost always alone on a trail with plenty of other hikers.

Also, I would lay long odds the pack that Reese Witherspoon wore in the movie weighed no more than ten pounds. Having hiked with a 40+ pound pack lots of times, I can tell how heavy a pack is by posture of the person carrying it, and she looked like that pack was full of styrofoam peanuts.

If you're expecting a guide about what the PCT is like, this movie is not for you. It is more of an introspective look at what drove one particular woman to hike it.

Personally -- I hated it! It must be a chick flick. I warn any man to have nothing to do with this movie. The only good part are some very fleeting scenes of Reese Witherspoon topless in a few flashbacks. Her boobs seems somehow bigger in Legally Blonde.

The question for the poll is what do you give the movie on a 0 to 4 scale?

Quote: Wizard

However, those 20 men will be falling all over themselves to be within smelling distance of what few women are on the trail. They will deliberately go slow to stay with them or speed up if they hear one they haven't met yet is ahead on the trail.

This is what I would expect from trail hikers.
Lets face it, hiking is a semi nerdy thing to
do, even you are a self admitted nerd. I'm sure
these guys dream of meeting a hot girl on
the trail and sharing a sleeping bag, while
their wedding ring is in their pocket. The
few hikers I've known remind me of the
guys on BBT. Real detail conscious, have
every new hiking device in their pack, dried
food that nobody has ever heard of, $600
hiking shoes, two GPS's in case one breaks
down, a SAT phone in case there is no signal
for the I-phone. A girl on the trail gives them
the same hope as a girl at chess camp did
when they were 13.

Quote: Evenbob

This is what I would expect from trail hikers.
Lets face it, hiking is a semi nerdy thing to
do, even you are a self admitted nerd.

Another rare agreement between us. I've done thousands of miles of hiking through the years and find that serious hikers often do tend to like nerdy things.

I can never understand how women on shows like Sex and the City can complain that it is hard meeting men. Go on any hiking trip and you'll have to beat them off with a hiking stick. The hiking groups here in Vegas are at least 75% men.

Quote: Wizard

That said, Wild is about a single woman who hiked about half of the PCT. What you can expect is at least half of the movie full of flash backs, many only a second long, to various points of her life. Much of the parts on the trail are her writing journal entries or whatever she is thinking about. There is little context about the physical trail itself. Then again, a movie just showing a woman walking down a trail might not be very cinematic.

I have a feeling whoever directed this movie is a huge man hater. Just about every experience with men along the trail suggested the men are a bunch of stalkers and rapists. Considering that the main character banged just about every man she met before going on the hike (why don't I ever meet women like this?) suggests she isn't the man hater but whoever made the movie is.

Having read the books mentioned above and having done about ten days on the Appalachian Trail I can say that men on the trail outnumber women by about 20 to 1. This was accurately depicted in the movie. However, those 20 men will be falling all over themselves to be within smelling distance of what few women are on the trail. They will deliberately go slow to stay with them or speed up if they hear one they haven't met yet is ahead on the trail. This is evident by log books they keep in the shelters and significant trail markers.

The character in Wild was almost always hiking alone which said to me she must have either been extremely unlikeable or had to be very forceful about telling the men to get lost. She did meet one woman along the way in the movie but the movie doesn't say why they didn't hike together. The character in the movie seemed basically nice so I feel there was some omission on the part of the director on why she was almost always alone on a trail with plenty of other hikers.

Also, I would lay long odds the pack that Reese Witherspoon wore in the movie weighed no more than ten pounds. Having hiked with a 40+ pound pack lots of times, I can tell how heavy a pack is by posture of the person carrying it, and she looked like that pack was full of styrofoam peanuts.

If you're expecting a guide about what the PCT is like, this movie is not for you. It is more of an introspective look at what drove one particular woman to hike it.

Personally -- I hated it! It must be a chick flick. I warn any man to have nothing to do with this movie. The only good part are some very fleeting scenes of Reese Witherspoon topless in a few flashbacks. Her boobs seems somehow bigger in Legally Blonde.

The question for the poll is what do you give the movie on a 0 to 4 scale?

wow, you say you read the book, but you hated the movie?

I read a lot of non-fiction, and I read this back in May, and thought it was the best book I read all summer. Very well written. But maybe I liked it because my own mother died when I was young, and I hike a lot here in Washington State.

The author was so traumatized by her mother's death at age 22, that she sank into self-destruction, with the failure of her marriage, heroin use, promiscuity, etc for four years before she (on the brink of self-destructive suicide) bought camping gear and tried to find herself by hiking this 1000-mile trek. I thought the movie portrayed the mother fairly well with all the flashbacks, didn't give much time to the brother though (which was fine with me). The movie barely touched on the heroin use, which made it look like a few times only, but actually went on for four years. Reese is 38 years old...too old for the role, so of course her boobs aren't like a 26-yr-olds (but I thank the director for showing them none-the-less). I'm a hiker also, so I was looking forward to this movie ever since I read the book. I liked the book enough to actually go to the author's Facebook page and click "like" for the first time in my life.

My gripe is that Reese's legs were scrawny in the movie's beginning and were still scrawny after a 1000-mile hike, also she gained no tan at all after 3 months in the summer heat? Author Cheryl Strayed comments on that in her book that eating small portions coupled with strenuous exercise gave her a great body. The creepy rapists of which you speak were worse in the book. Also...casting choices. The fellow hiker, Greg, somewhat of a hero in the book, was played by an actor we knew from Breaking Bad, and he was an amoral, murderous villain with swastika tattoos, and that's all I could think while he was on the screen. I didn't think of this as a chick-flick so much, but what can I say?....I liked Dirty Dancing and 13 Going on 30 also. Men: if you haven't read the book, don't see the movie. I guess I can see how this would be a chick-flick.

Did you catch Cheryl Strayed's cameo? She was at the very beginning; she drove the truck and dropped Reese off at the motel in the first few minutes of the movie.

Cheryl, in real life at the time:



And now:



I loved the book, liked the movie, and applaud Cheryl for getting her life together when it was on the brink of suicide. Way to go!

Thanks for your comments, Zippy.

Just to set the record straight, I didn't read the book. I was referring to the trilogy of hiking books by Bill Walker, who did the AT, PCT, and Camino.

Good point about her body looking the same after the hike. In reality, men will just look awful after a long distance hike. Huge powerful legs on a very scrawny body. Women come out actually gaining a little weight on average, or so I hear, and generally look better. Whatever the case, Witherspoon did look exactly the same as the day she started the hike.

Quote: Wizard

I can never understand how women on shows like Sex and the City can complain that it is hard meeting men. .

They met lots of men, just not men they
thought they wanted. Women want a
guy who is handsome, educated, witty,
has a good job and pays most of his
attention to them. Those men are already
taken or are Gay. Mostly Gay..

Quote: Evenbob

This is what I would expect from trail hikers.
Lets face it, hiking is a semi nerdy thing to
do, even you are a self admitted nerd. I'm sure
these guys dream of meeting a hot girl on
the trail and sharing a sleeping bag, while
their wedding ring is in their pocket. The
few hikers I've known remind me of the
guys on BBT. Real detail conscious, have
every new hiking device in their pack, dried
food that nobody has ever heard of, $600
hiking shoes, two GPS's in case one breaks
down, a SAT phone in case there is no signal
for the I-phone. A girl on the trail gives them
the same hope as a girl at chess camp did
when they were 13.

OMG! You couldn't BE more wrong! The hikers I know are in great shape regardless of their age. They have to be. Who cares if they play chess in their free time? Or eat granola?

And it's hiking BOOTS, not shoes. And boots are the single most important item to any serious hiker, so $600 is worth it.

Quote: Wizard

Witherspoon did look exactly the same as the day she started the hike.

It's a movie that took about 6 weeks to
make, she did very little hiking. Mostly
set up shots that they do over and over.

Most people don't know movies use only
one camera. So when you see a scene that
has say, four different angles, that means
they had to do that scene four different
times, very time consuming. If they used
more then one camera, it really limits
the shots they can take because you'll see
the other cameras and lights. Yes, they
use lights and light umbrellas in outdoor
shooting in almost every scene.

So Reese looks the same because she is
the same.

Quote: zippyboy

OMG! You couldn't BE more wrong! The hikers I know are in great shape regardless of their age. .

Where did I say they weren't in great shape?
And I'm sorry, many of them are very much
nerds, do you even know what a nerd is?

Quote: Evenbob

So Reese looks the same because she is
the same.

I think the movie would have been better if Witherspoon had actually done part of the PCT to prepare. I'm not saying 100% she didn't, but as someone who has hiked, I certainly didn't get the feeling she ever walked further than valet parking to her table at the best restaurants in Hollywood.

I'm not saying I dislike her as an actress but I think the movie would have been better with an unknown more hungry actress who would have hiked the PCT just for purposes of research.

Also compare her performance to Charlise Theron's performance in Monster. Actually don't. There can be no comparison.