Reese Gone Wild: Totally watchable film

Wild, the Reese Witherspoon vehicle based on the memoir by Cheryl Strayed, is a totally engaging movie that follows Witherspoon on a three-month solo hike north on the Pacific Coast Trail from the Mojave Desert to the Columbia River border between Oregon and Washington State. Witherspoon, as Strayed, is inexperienced and unprepared for this trek, so part of the adventure is watching her learn and grow and get smarter and tougher, and part of the fun is rooting for her survival - and who could be more winning or appealing in the role the Witherspoon, trudging along with that enormous pack looming over her back as if she's carrying an entire wall? The great thing about this movie is that it so effectively brings together the journey of discovery and recovery with the elements of Strayed's troubled past, very well revealed through many flashbacks that are truly flashes and not long narrative interruptions: he childhood with an abusive and angry father, raised by a single mom who's a bit flighty and goofy, her mother's early death, and the terrible grieving process that leads Strayed to infidelity, serial sex with strangers, drug abuse, divorce, and finally to this hike to learn about herself. for those who may have seen the recent James Brown bio-pic, contrast is textbook revealing: that movie was a mess of scenes told out of sequence to no clear effect or benefit; this one has a strong narrative line and the back pages fill inform us more deeply about the character we are traveling with. Nick Hornby did the screenplay and deserves recognition for that. This movie is adventuresome, tense, funny at times, beautiful often, thoughtful, credible, and fun to watch.