Into the Wild, directed by Sean Penn.
On my list of overrated films from recent memory, Sean Penn’s Into the Wild disappointingly wraps itself in an all too familiar surface self importance and boasts a vague American zeitgeist that upon conclusion (after a tiring 2 1/2 hours) leaves the audience with little else than exhausted sympathy for a confused, naive, yet courageous young man. And granted, perhaps that’s enough for some. Not me. Penn had a wonderful opportunity here to delve (even hypothetically, that’s the allowance to filmmakers) into McCandless’ underlying motivations, his fears and desires, beyond just his youthful angst and rejection of priviledge. Instead though, we’re offered only a table of sour character cliches and bland stereotyped drama. And hopefully, Emile Hirsh has more to offer than the chops on display here. Sorry, but the kid couldn’t act his way out of wet paper bag.
Although, I’ll admit all wasn’t lost in the muck. Eric Gautier’s cinematography is quite commendable, as is the casting of the appealing Kristen Stewart as a passing love interest. A figure whose presence in the script does more to define the McCandless character in her short 10 minutes than the rest of the picture does in it’s entirety.
