Into the Wild

An obnoxious but fairly interesting coming of age/finding yourself/road movie.

Very preachy. The narration is very wordy and sounds like someone reading from a book. Does not serve the purpose it was intended to.

That being said, well acted by most. A very interesting premise that does not disappoint. Seems like it should be slow but is surprisingly well paced. I am reluctant to call it a character driven movie as our main character changes very little throughout (with the exception of an important lesson in the final ten minutes).

The directing is above par (particularly the latter part and even more particularly the ending). Could have benefited from some more impressive cinematography (having seen "The Assassination of Jesse James" I was not too impressed with these desert shots).

Personally I did not find the character very likeable until very late into the movie but I'm sure I'm lonely in that opinion (no pun intended).

All in all a very interesting movie that suffers from being a little too philosophical and preachy. It's strange to see a movie set in the early 90s now become a period piece.

Score: 3 and a half moose heads (out of 5)

An obnoxious audible oratory:

"What's your fascination with all that stuff?"
"I'm going to Alaska."
"Alaska, Alaska? Or city Alaska? Because they do have markets in Alaska. The city of Alaska. Not in Alaska. In the city of Alaska, they have markets."
"No, man. Alaska, Alaska. I'm gonna be all the way out there, all the way fucking out there. Just on my own. You know, no fucking watch, no map, no axe, no nothing. No nothing. Just be out there. Just be out there in it. You know, big mountains, rivers, sky, game. Just be out there in it, you know? In the wild."

Sean Penn and Jon Krakauer wrote about Alaska

Sean Penn pictured Alaska

Emile Hirsch, Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt and Jena Malone took us to Alaska