I gave the movie 2.5/5 stars. I hated the book (1/5 stars at best), so this was much better. But it's probably not worth seeing unless you loved the book or are really into seeing movies about hiking.

On the plus side, all of the actors were good in their roles, and despite her America's-sweetheart looks, Reese Witherspoon did a good job of portraying a woman whose life spiraled out of control. Despite their being only 3 scenes filmed on the actual trail (Tehachapi Pass, Crater Lake, and the Bridge of the Gods), the cinematography was really nice--the lighting was just perfect in almost every scene.

That said, I felt no emotional attachment to Cheryl's character in the film. Having done thru-hikes, I guess I don't see how you can walk yourself to healthy. I find that the trail is a great distraction from real life but you are too busy hiking to battle your personal demons. So I didn't find it believable that Cheryl could go from pregnant heroin addict to healthy, functioning person in 4 months by hiking alone. I didn't see how what happened to her on the trail (which really isn't very much other than blisters and encounters with odd characters, benign and otherwise) made her better.

Also, while there was a lot of nice cinematography, if I hadn't hiked the PCT before, the movie would lead me to suspect that the PCT isn't very attractive. The locations they filmed in Oregon were not impressive. The real PCT has incredible views almost every day, but you see few landscapes worth mentioning in the movie, with the exception of a brief shot of Crater Lake. If the actual PCT were as unattractive as what they showed in the movie, heroin and anonymous sex might seem like a better option.