Review: Into the Wild

A young guy basically has it all: money, smarts, good looks and a golden future. He decides to give it all up by donating his trust fund to charity and by destroying all his credits cards and his identity. He essentially abandons everything that defined who he was supposed to be to embark on an incredible journey of self discovery into the human spirit. Survival, dinning on cute little squirrels for chow time and an incredible trek to Alaska ensue.

Every once in awhile, a movie will come outta nowhere and blow your socks off. This was a real unique experience for me; I haven’t felt this way about a movie since THE SHAWSHANK REDEMTION. There are so many layers to this movie while he reconnects with nature and redefines himself during the process. But the most surprising layer was the deep friendships he made while on his journey despite how brief some of them were.. It’s funny, it sounds like an amazing journey, and it is, but in no way was it glorified. This guy was living like a bum. Hitch hiked or walked everywhere, lived under a tarp, barely had any money and in the end was starving most of the time. It’s not exactly how I would want to spend my summer but the way Penn was able to strip away this unmistakable dirty reality and make something exhilarating and beautiful, just draws you to the screen and be part of the experience. Very powerful stuff guys!

Emile Hirsch plays Christopher McCandless and then is reborn into Alexander Supertramp. I love that name! I’ve been a big fan of Hirsch for awhile. I loved him in THE GIRL NEXT DOOR and THE LORDS OF DOGTOWN and he brings his A-game here. Supertramp uncompromised obsessive determination to get to Alaska was real and inspirational and Hirsch really grasped these aspects.

Aside from the main adventure, it was the people that Alexander Supertramp was meeting along the way that made the movie so much more intriguing. He was fortunate to meet these unique people, you know the ones where you meet for the first time and you feel like you’ve known them your whole life. It was this special connection he made with them and it’s something that most will be able to relate to. As a result to the brilliant casting of these secondary characters, all the actors did an incredible job bringing these people to life. It was great to see Vince Vaughn play another version of him, he’s just one of those characters you can never really get tired of watching. It was a nice surprise to see him. Hands down, give Catherine Keener the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for this role. She was fantastic and charming. Hopefully Hollywood will finally recognize the great actress that she is

Sean Penn has outdone himself! This is the one he will be remembered for. In my humble opinion, this is his Masterpiece! He’s a great storyteller and he was able to really draw you into this guy’s world and the people around him. The story read like a fairytale except for the magic and the happy ending. Usually when a movie is this good, there should be an amazing soundtrack to follow, well, they didn’t skip a beat here. Eddie Vedder’s version of Hard Sun was intense and sent shivers up my spine.

I hope they make “I am Alexander Supertramp” t-shirts. I’ll be the first guy to buy one. I highly recommend this movie. I think everybody will really enjoy this cinematic experience. It works on so many levels. I know after I left the cinema, I was still feeling the whole vibe or energy of the film well into the next day. Just go see it and you’ll know what I’m talking about.

— by Tim
Goernert