“Wild” wasn’t that wild

“Wild” is getting a lot of praise these days along with Reese Witherspoon (Cheryl Strayed). I am happy for both.  However, I am not a big fan of the movie, and it’s not because of the storyline.

The movie was about self-discovery and self-healing after our hero survived her childhood trauma of having an abusive father, being a daughter of a single mother, siblings who barely spent time with each other; losing mother at 22 and going on the journey of cocaine and un-endless sex with total strangers to marrying and divorcing. So, after all that our hero decides to go on a journey by taking Western Pacific Trail route from Mojave Desert (there about) to the border between Washington State and Canada. 

Throughout her journey, she was unprepared like in her real life (though she read a great deal of books and was a good student). She met whole bunch of people from friends to possible evil men. And finally she reached the end of her journey and miraculously was transformed. 

Why this movie was not as wild? The reason was simple. It just dragged on. From the beginning, I felt like stop watching it. I don't really know the problem of this boring feeling, but it could be that script was bad or the camera angles were not convincing. (Imagine if, at times, camera showed us the hero's point of view, i.e. first point of view; that would be wow). Of course, the other reason could have been Reese Witherspoon’s acting, but I doubt it because she convinced me of her struggles either in life or on the trail.

As a person who has gone on similar journeys in England, Europe or Peru, I was convinced with Reese Witherspoon's performance as a person who was ill prepared for her journey. After all, unlike today, there weren't many how-to guides on surviving such a trek. In fact, there are no true preparation except for common sense and bare necessities, which Cheryl lacked.

I also liked the portrayal of characters our hero met, and she showed well her genuine fear, assumptions, and happiness. Everything was very moving, and I had some strong reactions given her struggles and loss (mother and mind). For example, I enjoyed her relationship with her mom, Bobbi, (Laura Dern – great performance), her lack of any solid connection to her siblings, and how she fell apart. I also enjoyed how the flashbacks were handled. They were flashes of the past. After all, memories are exactly that. We don’t live in those experiences anymore. We just remember them like flashes.

The problem, for me, was that I didn’t believe her transformation. I didn't see it. And having a child singing to our hero is nice and sweet and almost, half-expectedly, the movie came close to showing Cheryl transform. And the last two guys she met who thought of raping her was a solid test for our hero to stop her old behavior to fuck every random guy she met. Though I was happy about her resolve, but why did she sleep with a guy she met later? No growth there. So, her transformation was not as believable. The creators thought that Voice-Over (V.O.), at the end, would do the trick? They were mistaken. "Wild" failed to convince me of her transformation. At the end of the movie, I felt like she would just go home and go back to her old behavior. V.O. was trying to convince us of her change, but failed because we had to listen to Cheryl’s voice to tell (not show, as good storytelling supposed to do) us that she changed her life because she got married and became a mom. I didn’t think it was enough. I’m sure that in the book, the author described in depth about her life after the trek. However as a person who didn’t read the book, I wanted to see that. After all, personal transformation is not what happens to the person on the trail, but what happens to him or her after she returns from the journey. What did a person learn from such an ordeal about herself and her relationship with other people and nature? People might fall apart again and return to their old-ways. Consequently, I wanted to see Cheryl at home. But that would be a different movie.

One of the storytelling tricks I would put in this movie would be for Cheryl to walk to the bridge through the sunlight or something else magical.  That’s how personal transformation happens. It doesn’t happen with V.O.s. Besides, when a person suddenly marries and becomes a parent, it shows that person didn’t transform. The reason is because the thinking is that marriage is last chance to absolve oneself of all mistakes and poor decision-making and receive approval from others. Instead, transformation is when you can live by yourself with yourself perhaps even in the same location where mistakes were made. After all, the question for me is why did she get married? How did she meet her life partner? In “Eat, Pray, Love”, the movie answered those questions though book did it with more success. But like I said, that would be a different movie.

This movie just showed that self-transformation journeys should be left as books and not made as movies. Or, perhaps, I should’ve read the book first, but I never heard of it till now. I guess this is true movie’s success to get us buy 300+ page book on the same journey. However, "Celestine Prophecy" (adapted from a book) succeeded to take a guy from losing it all and finding his strength through his journey. In this movie, there was magic, but why wasn't it in "Wild"? I wished it would have been. It would’ve made it look more real. Otherwise, this movie was slightly better than "American Hustle".

The reason is simple. Self-discovery is personal. No one will see it or know about it but to a person who this is happening, even if that person tells others. Others will smile, shrug their shoulders, wish you good luck or say great job. But they won't be able to see it or experience it as you will even if they ask how the experience was. Would you be able to explain your spiritual journey, or would you recount what you did on that journey, if not too embarrassing? So, to show that in a movie is extremely hard. It is a tall task and movies with this type of theme should be commended, but unless you have gone through self-growth or done a similar trek, it will be hard to even scratch the surface and one will find this movie unbearable. I've done similar trek in Peru (sort of) and I felt her agony, frustrations, self-doubt, and finally seeing the beauty inside and outside. For me, Machu Picchu was that magic place, as I was standing, in the early morning, and saw the sun come up. Tt Machu Picchu, the sun’s rays take on new whole meaning of heavenly life on Earth. For our hero, a bridge over the river looking out on forests and unseen horizon was the Machu Picchu, and I almost got that glimpse of her change. Instead, I didn’t see her smile or take a deep breath as if she is ready to tackle the next stage of her journey. I saw her standing there barely even cracking a smile. I felt she was still afraid. 

Other way to look at this movie is metaphorically. Our hero started her trek like a baby starting a new life and quickly got into trouble. This time though no parent came to help. By meeting different people, she learned about life and made decisions based on whether they were safe and beneficial for her. The child and his grandma who she met in the forest were her innocence and wisdom that she had but was not aware of. The forest was what is in us. We live in thick beautiful forest of darkness with some light peering through. And while we live in it, we forget our innocence, dreams, strength, and wisdom about ourselves though we must never do that. But what the heck was the metaphor of sly and pretty fox? I was befuddled by it. Overall, this movie was worth watching and experience. 

Though, I wished they would’ve showed more of first point of view and some magic of self-realization. After all, when I had similar experiences, I would feel warmth in my body, and mind would calm down and relax. The whole body created an illusion of control and not worrying about anything. But putting camera inside the body won't show it because we will see only organs like heart and brain's synopses firing off in different directions like fireworks. Maybe, warmth could be shown through a flower and mind through the sunlight. After all, this is storytelling and some leeway is acceptable even in movie making.

So, does Reese Witherspoon deserve her nomination? Yes. Will she win it? Unlikely.  She didn't go through her transformation. But everyone's the critic. What is your take? What did you think about this movie? 

P.S. The soundtrack in this movie was superb like performance by Simon & Garfunkel "If I could, then I would...)