nan | 楠木

Sean Penn’s adaptation of Jon Krakauer’s work of non-fiction is a poetic film and a journey into the heart of the fascinating young man who died too young at the age of 24.

Emile Hirsch plays Chris McCandless, the well-educated young man from a fairly well-off family who decided to leave society to go into the wild, and who eventually suffered a painful death (starvation) in the wilderness of Alaska.

The narrative employs a convoluted structure, cutting back and forth between Chris’s last days in Alaska and earlier parts of his journey. We see at first a young man joyful to embrace the Alaskan wilderness, and then gradually learn of the reasons why he has decided on such a life (his troubles with his family being the center-piece) as well as the various people he met along the way.

The tone of the film is openly sympathetic towards Chris. He is portrayed as a sophisticated person, well-read (perhaps a spiritual descendant of Thoreau, Tolstoy, Jack London etc. whose works he was very fond of reading). His anger with society and his parents in particular is certainly childish in many ways, but the film is very forgiving and perhaps even supportive of him (which has drawn criticism).

That aside, technically speaking the film is outstanding. The cinematography is sheer brilliance, and the accompanying soundtrack epitomizes the spirit of the great wilderness. The film flows like a poem, and for that it is well worth watching.

8/10