{"id":1647,"date":"2015-06-21T10:04:58","date_gmt":"2015-06-21T14:04:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=1647"},"modified":"2026-10-07T09:40:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T13:40:08","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<\/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’s 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’s struggles to survive in remote northern California through harsh weather and her 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 contributes to this. Regardless, it is a winning turn for Witherspoon as she is excellent.<\/p>\n

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 played this role is that Witherspoon is a small, which makes her physical struggle to navigate trails and wilderness while hauling a large backpack of necessities believable.<\/p>\n

Through flashbacks of Cheryl’s life before the enormous hike, we are introduced to her and the challenges she faced. 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.<\/p>\n

This leads Cheryl down a path of destructive behavior and ultimately to her divorce from her husband, Paul, who periodically sends her care packages along the way.<\/p>\n

Cheryl’s bond with her mother, a struggling woman herself, is deep. Bobbi struggles to raise a family and improve her education and life, which the flashback scenes featuring Cheryl as a teenager explore.<\/p>\n

I love the encounters Cheryl faces along the trail, and I feel they add 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, Frank seems dangerous and wields a gun, so Cheryl is wary as she goes home with him for dinner. Happily, Frank is married to a kindhearted woman named Annette, and the three of them enjoy a lovely feast.<\/p>\n

Later, she encounters a young boy whose mother has died. They bond as the boy sings a song his mother used to sing to him, and when he leaves, Cheryl sobs with 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 Scott’s Review #249 Reviewed June 21, 2015 Grade: B+ Wild (2014) is a personal story of a young woman’s 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 Witherspoon in … 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":[1,205,158,192],"tags":[5756,4465,4216,12836,1460,12835,2065,4974,12837],"class_list":["post-1647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2014-films","category-adventure-films","category-bios","category-dramas","tag-bill-pohlad","tag-gaby-hoffmann","tag-jean-marc-vallee","tag-kevin-rankin","tag-laura-dern","tag-michiel-huisman","tag-reese-witherspoon","tag-thomas-sadoski","tag-w-earl-brown"],"_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":11,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24734,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1647\/revisions\/24734"}],"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}]}}