Into the Wild (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition)

Reviewed by:
Gene Newman

Nature may look nice, but it's mostly cruel and annoying. Kinda like this movie. Emile Hirsch (The Girl Next Door, Lords of Dogtown) plays the real-life Christopher McCandless, a smart young guy with a bright future who throws it all away to live off the land. For a movie about struggle, it's way too sanitized as he wanders the country having a positive life-altering impact on everyone he meets, with his final quest being survival in the unforgiving Alaskan wilderness. While watching it we were wrapped up in the moment, but looking back we feel cheated. This kid comes across more like Jesus than a well off, possibly mentally disturbed white boy with family issues. Sean Penn proves again he can direct a great looking movie, but the two-and-a-half-hour story is too long and lacks the hard edge that makes Penn such a controversial dude. And don't be fooled by the "Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition" call-out on the case, since there are only two relatively short documentaries included. The least they could have offered was some Trail Mix.

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