The other night my friend Jen and I decided to go to the movies and she picked this movie to see. Once again, I got to check out another Indie theater in NYC! I didn't have any background information on this movie so I was looking at it from a blank slate with zero expectations. And I have to say I was blown away. It was an incredibly powerful movie that left Jen and I emailing back and forth about it a day and two days later.
Into the Wild, is the true story of Chris McCandless, who upon graduating from Emory University in Atlanta in the early 1990's decided to give away his life savings of $24,000 and hit the road without contacting anyone and telling them where he was going or what he was doing. He wanted to shed "society" because he felt it was holding him back (think Thoreau!) He took off cross country and spent 2 years wandering the US, mostly out west, working here and there to make some money to scrape by, but mostly getting by on the generosity of strangers giving him rides and meals. He settled every now and again for a couple of months but mostly he wandered and explored, pondering the mysteries of life. His ultimate goal was to make it to the Alaskan Wilderness, the ultimate test, and live off the land for a couple of months. I'm going to stop the synapses there because I don't want to give away the story - although many of you may already know it, as the movie was based on Jon Krakauer's 1996 book.
The cast was in my opinion great: Catherine Keener, William Hurt, Marcia Gay Harden, Vince Vaughan, and others you'll recognize. Emilie Hirsch played Chris and reminded me of a young Leonardo DiCaprio.
It's not an action packed movie that has a fast pace, but a slower, thought-provoking journey. One that I enjoyed going on and left me emotional drained and tired afterwards. I would recommend checking it out - if this sort of thing interests you or even if it doesn't.
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