"Wild" - Your Thoughts and Reviews of the Film Here

[Sailing_Faith]

I really liked it...

I found it to be a good movie, not just a good hiker movie.

i think the fox represented her mother...

[Coffee]

In the movie, she started at the Mexican border - I've not read the book, so don't know where she actually started.

No, the movie did not depict her hike as starting at the Mexican border. She checked into a motel in Mojave and then started at Tahachapi Pass after getting a ride at a gas station to the trailhead.

[Driver8]

No, the movie did not depict her hike as starting at the Mexican border. She checked into a motel in Mojave and then started at Tahachapi Pass after getting a ride at a gas station to the trailhead.

OK, thanks for the correction. I thought somewhere in there she said she was starting at the Mex border or the trail goes from there to Canada, but I was probably conflating things. I have only a cursory understanding of the trail's route. Thank you!

As to the distance from Mojave to Kennedy Meadows, it's more like 170 than 100 miles - just looked it up. I don't remember that it was clearly said in the movie that CS had 100 miles from her start to KM, or 100 miles from point of meet-up with her first fellow hiker, as shown in the movie. Not a major point.

[Coffee]

I think that she met the other hiker a few days before arriving at Kennedy Meadows but I could be mistaken. Overall, I thought that the movie tried to remain true to the actual route she took, especially skipping the section from Trail Pass up to Donner summit. Not depicting the JMT section will probably limit the number of new hikers attracted to the PCT, especially thru hikers.

[colorado_rob]

I liked the movie. I liked it much better than the book. The movie did a good job of portraying her problems without wallowing in them in excruciating detail over and over like the book. The ending could have been stronger, but I felt that way about the book too. Pretty authentic to life, actually, a progression instead of a solution.

I like this statement, chief. It's pretty close to how I feel about it. I read the book a few months ago, and we just got home from watching the movie. I was worried it wouldn't be good, but it was. And the story didn't drag like it could have. It moved along well, with enough of her past to get the idea of who she was and why she was on the trail.

Same here, my thoughts exactly. The book was a good read, but got really tedious in spots, her going on and on and on, a bit too much fluff IMHO. Normally, books are "better" than movies, given their capability for better character development, but Wild broke this mold.

[HooKooDooKu]

I thought the movie did an excellent job staying true to the book. Of course because of the brevity of the movie, tons of details were left out, and some details were modified or combined. But the story was still there.

Had I not read the book first, I personally would have likely hated the movie. As others have said, the story is non-linear. Cheryl's background is revealed in flashbacks. But in the book, the flashbacks are entire stories where you fully understand what is going on. But the flashbacks in the movie are so brief that I think I would have stayed totally confused.

Certainly a lot of ground was covered in the voiceover at the end, but I thought the story still ended at a satisfying juncture.

The book ends pretty much the same way. The whole story is about Cheryl's emotional development, told partially thru anecdotal stories of the things that happened to her along the trail. The emotional development and the trail stories are complete once she crosses 'The Bridge of the Gods'.

[linus72]

if i remember correctly, the only way to go around the snowed-in sierras was to travel by bus to reno and then back southwest into cali north of where the snow made the mtns impassible. defintely long and roundabout but i believe that was why...wish they showed more of her attempt on that part before skipping it and that might also have helped make this clear if they mentioned the part about how she would have to get around it cause she was told that was the way she'd have to go to skip that part of the trail

[Coffee]

I couldn't get through the book but I thought the movie was pretty well done. Which is definitely the opposite of my usual reaction of preferring books to movies. I read dozens of books a year and go to very few movies. Wild was the only movie I attended in 2014. I liked the fact that the movie dealt with Cheryl's pre-PCT life in flashbacks rather than a lengthy introduction prior to any coverage of the PCT. Still the book was much more about a woman's life story and issues than the trail. And I really don't see many thru hikers attracted to the trail due to viewing the movie. But I could be wrong.

[Driver8]

One other thing I enjoyed about the movie. While focusing on Cheryl's story and presenting her inner thoughts and viewpoint, it often contradicts her perspective by example our counterpoints to her experience with that of others. There's her perspective that a major driver for long distance hikes is personal loss or trauma, then there are several of her fellow hikers who, to appearances, are happy-go-lucky people who love hiking and a good adventure. I'd bet most of them are not driven by great loss - they just want the fun experience and are willing to work for it.

On this point and elsewhere, as I've touched on above, I appreciated and enjoyed that much of the film's story was told visually and less verbally. I guess that's always true in the movies, but I found it particularly effective and noticeable here.

[Virginia Son]

I happened to hear a radio interview months ago that featured the author but have not read the book. As a father of four (three daughters) I found the scene about the father's abusive behavior most telling. As a hiker who cut short a brief segment hike because my boots are too small the toenail/flying boot scene made me clap. Also, at some point an experienced "hiker" should have told her and the audience that candles should not be lit in tent. Parents, love the hike but love your kids more.

[Mags]

The wife and I saw it on Christmas Eve.

I admit, here's the lengthy review:
http://www.pmags.com/so-i-saw-that-m...review-of-wild

TL;DR version: I thought it was OK (3/5), the wife liked it a little better (4/5). We both felt that without the backstory of the grief and drug abuse, and the recovery from said issues, a "mere' walk on a trail would be boring for the general public. OTOH, so would a story showing several months of therapy. THe PCT journey was the needed hooked to hang the story on and make it compelling as well.

[Del Q]

Good, not great. She got to shower too often.

[Del Q]

Good, not great.

She got to shower too often. I mean the movie is under 2 hours.

How often do you need to clean up?

[Coffee]

The shower scenes were fine and conveyed the feeling many hikers have when finally getting to clean up and there was only limited nudity. I thought that the flashback scenes of explicit drug use and sex with random men behind the restaurant were unnecessary to convey the obvious fact that Strayed was into that type of behavior from other statements and overall context but this is the way of Hollywood these days.

[HooKooDooKu]

The shower scenes were fine and conveyed the feeling many hikers have when finally getting to clean up and there was only limited nudity. I thought that the flashback scenes of explicit drug use and sex with random men behind the restaurant were unnecessary to convey the obvious fact that Strayed was into that type of behavior from other statements and overall context but this is the way of Hollywood these days.

This is NOT a movie to take your kids (or even younger teens) to see. It contains nudity, [simulated?] sex acts, drug use, and lots of the F word. But I never found them to be gratuitous. The F word never felt like an "F - bomb". The "sex with random men" was intermixed with her husband to show that she was cheating on him for no particular reason.

Something else to consider... I had never seen a movie where Reese Witherspoon had a nude scene. I Googled the topic and could only find one other movie that Reese had a nude scene. When you consider that Reese co-produced this movie, she apparently felt the movie needed these scene to tell the story.

Finally:
The first time I read "Wild", I considered it an interesting read filled with "hiker" anecdotes. When I re-read the book, I already knew all the anecdotes, so all I saw was a book filled with a girl whining about the loss of her mother. While I was twice the age Cheryl was when I lost my mother, I was still thinking "come on woman, get over it". But when I saw the movie, I thought it did a very good job of portraying Cheryl's emotions... better than even the book.

So to me, the nude/sex/f scenes seemed right for the movie.

[earlyriser26]

Saw the movie last week. I do not know how closely it followed the book, but it sure seemed to portray most men as sexual predators.

[Coffee]

So to me, the nude/sex/f scenes seemed right for the movie.

I guess it is a question of whether the actual visual scenes were necessary or if they could have simply been alluded to in a way that conveys the same point. I've definitely noticed that "R" rated movies have become far more graphic than they were 20 years ago.

"The Interview" was the second new release movie for me this year. After viewing that movie, I wanted both my money and two hours of my life back. I felt much better about "Wild" in comparison, whatever my reservations about the details of the movie.

[lemon b]

Read the book when it first came out . Really have no interest in seeing the film. The book had its ups and downs. Have nothing but respect for the author.

[stephanD]

Saw the movie and read the book. it is important to keep in mind it's not a hiking movie but a memoir and should be judged as such. I liked both very much and plan to see the movie again. For someone who never been west of the Mississippi, I enjoyed very much the PCT scenes, although it is not about the PCT.

[Trillium]

Haven't seen it yet; not sure I want to.

Reese made the circuit of talk shows just before the movie came out, (I saw her on 2 different shows on the same day) and Cheryl Strayed was with her on at least one of them. Reese said she did the nude scenes because it was authentic.

As as far as movie ratings go, they seem to be at least one or more down from the way they would have been rated when I was a teen/young adult. Gone Girl being a prime example.