LLFF - INTO THE WILD

Looking for Salvation in Alaska with Jack London?

It’s taken Sean Penn a while to return to the director’s chair. Clearly John Krakauer’s book on Christopher McCandless is close to his heart. The real life story of a bright college kid who turns his back on the world of privilege and possessions, giving away his $24,000 savings and leaving for a journey of self-discovery on the open road leading to the rugged wilds of Alaska. This is steeped in so much conviction it’s in danger of overreaching itself in aiming for ‘The Great American Film’. Certainly the locations and cinematography are breathtaking but the problems lie in Penn’s lionisation of his protagonist. There is a lot of reflection in this about the kind of world we’re living in today, of the Paulo Coelho Robert Pirsig nature, which in it’s intent is very commendable but it’s expressed through an intrusive voice-over from the sister played by Jena Malone which rings out with a flawed adolescent poetry. She sounds like post Donnie Darko self-help. At its heart Into the Wild is about an understanding of personal space through the wider space of the great American wilderness but the cloying voice-over wants to hold the viewer’s hand like an earnest Hollywood movie with a message. Of course the film wouldn’t be nearly as popular but it could have learnt from the Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethul’s way with framing the solitary intensity of the untamed. Still, you can’t help but admire Into the Wild. For all it’s faults it is absolutely grand cinema, it demands to be seen on a big screen. Christopher McCandless, played by Emile Hirsch, is more All-American than Timothy Treadwell in Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man, but they both share a talent for naivety and an eccentricity that when it isn’t annoying can be rather touching.

It’s a shame Michael Brook’s score only very occasionally rises above the perfunctory. My heart sank when I saw Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam) taking care of the songs. It actually isn’t as bad as I was expecting and the irritation aspect is a suitable backing for a kid high on his own dream.

The film cuts between Alaska and his journey getting there, and if you get past the over wrought scenes with his family - shots of William Hurt looking heavenwards - it manages to get through its 148 minute running time without being a chore. A number of characters on the way add some variety to the overly singular world of McCandless. Vince Vaughn is outstanding as a down to earth blue collar worker who brims with a magnetism and sense more convincing than the inner searching of McCandless. And Hal Holbrook’s arrival couldn’t have been more timely. Sean Penn has taken the veteran from bit-part tv series land and put him back on the widescreen he deserves. His performance saves the film from the almost Christ-like epiphany Penn ends on as McCandless makes his final realisation. Somewhere along the way you can’t help but wonder how differently it could have turned out if only he’d got to watch Ray Mears rather than reading Tolstoy or Jack London.

Charles Maclean