Into the Wild is a movie that is completely unaware that its protagonist is smarmy, immature and pretentious twit. I am not insulting the real Chrisopher McCandless, the person on whose life the picture is based, but the fictionalized version of him played by Emile Hirsch. The movie's McCandless (who I will be referring to unless otherwise stated) moves a lot of people along the way, but never meets anyone who will tell him that he really needs to know- that he should grow up and get a life.
Sean Penn, who is a waaaay better actor than he is a director, seems to thin that McCandless was, you know, some kind of wise guru-man, dude. If we all just shared the man's beliefs, we would have world peace, and trancendential enlightenment, probably no global warming as well. Penn is too dense to realize that the real McCandless was just a kid who was admittantly smart and brave but seriously disturbed, in need of a psychologist's couch than a trek across Alaska.
Lots of people (including myself) have had problems with their family, but few feel the need to get away from every human being, period. The film's McCandless causes untold suffering to his abusive parents (who probably deserved it) but also to his beloved sister (Jena Malone), who did nothing and spends years being worried about her brother.
Penn chooses to tell the story out of chronological sequence, which makes the movie a long and rambling series of repetitious events. There are four basic scenes: 1.) His parents either are mean to him or abuse each other in his presence, 2.) He tries to interact with modern society but the Man gets him down (such as when he's told he has to wear socks when he works at Burger King), 3.) He meets some hippie who is one of the few who Really Understands, and 4.) He tries to survive on his own in the wild, usually failing. The scenes are bridges by some unbelievably pretentious narration from Malone, who sounds a host on one of those rejected NPR documentaries that air on weekends.
Into the Wild reminded me of a much better movie, Werner Herzog's documentary Grizzly Man. There are lots of similarities between Chris McCandless and Grizzly's Tim Treadwell. The biggest difference is in the attitude of the film's directors. Herzog portrayal both sides of Treadwell's personality- that he was a nice guy who loved nature while being delusional as to what nature really was. Penn's McCandless is, on the other hand, one of the few people who really Get It, even though he gave up any ability he had to help others and went on a selfless and pointless quest for himself. Herzog also didn't hire Eddie Vetter to write cheesy songs, either.
Even worse than being stupid, Into the Wild is boring. In its defense, it is strongly acted and has some excellent nature photography from Eric Gauteir. But there is absolutely no reason to see this movie. I am sure the real Chis McCandless was at least an interesting person. I am also sure he was not the next Khalil Gibran.
Into the Wild (2007)