{"id":1647,"date":"2015-06-21T10:04:58","date_gmt":"2015-06-21T14:04:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=1647"},"modified":"2024-10-14T14:21:02","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T18:21:02","slug":"wild-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=1647","title":{"rendered":"Wild-2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wild-2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director Jean-Marc Vallee<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scott’s Review #249<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"80013281\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reviewed June 21, 2015<\/p>\n

Grade: B+<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wild (2014) is a personal story of a young woman\u2019s 1995 challenge to hike the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest trail as a form of therapy for her divorce and her recovery from drug addiction.<\/p>\n

The film stars Reese Witherspoon in a thoughtful biography of a real-life figure, Cheryl Strayed, and is adapted from a novel entitled Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Trail.<\/p>\n

The film depicts Cheryl\u2019s struggles to survive in the remote area of northern California through various weather patterns, and her interesting encounters with strangers.<\/p>\n

The film is a showcase for Witherspoon as she takes center stage, appearing in almost every frame of the film.<\/p>\n

Her producing the project undoubtedly has something to do with this. Regardless, it is a winning turn for Witherspoon as she is excellent. She portrays the role with vigor, emotional rawness, and vulnerability, which comes across on-screen.<\/p>\n

She deserved her Oscar nomination for this part.<\/p>\n

What sets her apart from other actresses who may have gotten this part is that Witherspoon is a small woman, which makes her physical struggles to commandeer trails and wilderness while hauling a large backpack containing her necessities, believable.<\/p>\n

Shot using many flashbacks of Cheryl\u2019s life before the enormous hike, we are introduced to the character of Cheryl and her challenging life before. We know that she is a recovering addict, but we do not know what led to these events.<\/p>\n

Living in Minneapolis, she is very close to her mother Bobbi, played by Laura Dern, who tragically dies. This leads to a path of destructive behavior for Cheryl and ultimately to her divorce from her husband Paul, who periodically sends Cheryl care packages along her journey.<\/p>\n

The bond that Cheryl shares with her mother, a struggling woman herself, is deep. Bobbi has difficulties raising a family and striving to improve her education and life and this is explored during the flashback scenes featuring Cheryl as a teenager.<\/p>\n

I love the encounters Cheryl faces along the trail and feel it adds depth to the film.<\/p>\n

Few and far between are these gems of interchange since she is mostly alone with nature, and the characters are interesting. Alone in the dark and desperate for a meal, she flags down a farmer named Frank.<\/p>\n

At first, it appears Frank may be dangerous and wielding a gun so Cheryl is wary as she goes home with him for dinner.<\/p>\n

Happily, Frank is married to a kindhearted woman named Annette, and the three of them enjoy a lovely feast. Later, she encounters a young boy whose mother has died. They bond as the boy sings a song that his mother used to sing to him, and when the boy leaves, Cheryl sobs in emotion for her mother.<\/p>\n

These small snippets of real-life conversations and togetherness make the film feel happy and we root for Cheryl to accomplish her enormous feat.<\/p>\n

Thanks to a bravura performance by Witherspoon, Wild (2014) is much more than a woman surviving on her own in the wilderness. It is encased in quiet emotion and understated supporting performances that give layers to a human story.<\/p>\n

Oscar Nominations:\u00a0<\/strong>Best Actress-Reese Witherspoon, Best Supporting Actress-Laura Dern<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wild-2014 Director Jean-Marc Vallee Starring Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern Scott’s Review #249 Reviewed June 21, 2015 Grade: B+ Wild (2014) is a personal story of a young woman\u2019s 1995 challenge to hike the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest trail as a form of therapy for her divorce and her recovery from drug addiction. The film stars Reese … Continue reading Wild-2014<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,205,5755,158,192,4461,4213,1455,2063,4970],"tags":[78,259,5756,159,193,4465,4216,1460,2065,4974],"class_list":["post-1647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2014-films","category-adventure-films","category-bill-pohlad","category-bios","category-dramas","category-gaby-hoffmann","category-jean-marc-vallee","category-laura-dern","category-reese-witherspoon","category-thomas-sadoski","tag-2014-movie-reviews","tag-adventure-films","tag-bill-pohlad","tag-biographies","tag-dramas-2","tag-gaby-hoffmann","tag-jean-marc-vallee","tag-laura-dern","tag-reese-witherspoon","tag-thomas-sadoski"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1647"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20242,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1647\/revisions\/20242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}