“Into the Wild” (2007)
Sean Penn’s Into the Wild finally came into the library for me. It’s a road movie about a college graduate who forgoes the materialistic world of his unhappy family and sets off for Alaska. Though it jumps around in time, the story is easy to follow. Emile Hirsch is frighteningly convincing as Chris McCandless, who tumbles from bright idealism into gaunt, frightened loneliness. And the supporting cast is quite strong, which helps carry the 138 minute movie through to its end. Beautiful, though perhaps overlong, it mostly resists preaching, and simply shows the internal and external journeys of McCandless.
Two thoughts:
One, I find Hirsch looks distractingly like several other actors: Brian Austin Green and Thomas Dekker from Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, and Zac Efron of the High School Musicals.
Two, Sean Penn’s films tend to revolve around dead or doomed children. It’s a strange theme to own.