Writer's Note: The following review was published on Facebook on June 3rd, 2015. I thought I'd re-post it here after Laura Dern's big win for "Big Little Lies," as well as a win for the show itself, which was directed by Jean-Marc Vallee, who also directed this film.
This was recommended to me by my mom, of all people, who said, and I quote: "Reese gets naked, does a lot of drugs and has sex a lot- you should like it. But personally, I think she has the body of a 14-year-old boy."
Not sure where mom saw a naked 14-yr. old boy, but okay. I don't really have much for or against Reese Witherspoon. I loved some of her early stuff: "Election" & "Freeway," notably; and "Cruel Intentions" is one of my all-time guilty pleasures (though not for reasons that have anything to do with her, admittedly- looking at you, SMG), but she'd fallen off my radar long ago, what with all the rom-coms and "serious" dramas and the like.
She's great here, though, and I realized I was actually familiar with the source material this was based upon. I took a Creative Non-Fiction class a while back in college and we had to pick a lesser-known book that had inspired us in some way and a girl in my class picked the book this was based on, which inspired her to hike the Pacific Crest Trail herself, which is pretty impressive. I'm always fascinated when people are inspired to do major things in their lives because of art, so I thought I'd take a look into it myself.
Reese plays Cheryl Strayed, a name that sounds made-up but isn't, and suits her to a "T." Cheryl is a recovering addict who hits rock bottom after a life-changing event and decides to go on said hike to "find herself," alone, which is nuts these days. Along the way, she faces the elements, critters, bad planning on her end, rapey-looking fellow hikers (and some nice ones, too) and so forth. That's about it.
The always-welcome Laura Dern plays her mother, which was somewhat jarring to me (Dern doesn't look much older than Witherspoon, IMHO), but she's great. Both she and Reese earned those Oscar noms. Also cropping up are Gaby Hoffman ("Girls"), Thomas Sadoski ("The Newsroom"), and the front-man of the band Everclear, which suits a flick set in the mid-90s. The mostly folk-music soundtrack wasn't my cup of tea, as it's not my fave type of music, but points for including the more left-of-center Portishead, who I do love.
Reese does indeed show her pieces repeatedly, such as they are, and if you've ever wanted to see her bang two dudes for money in an alleyway, this is your movie. I admired the way she went for broke with this one, as if she had something to prove. Maybe she does, after one too many meh movies over the years. She definitely allows herself to look worse for the wear here, more so than ever before. It's kind of like the female version of "Into the Wild," when all is said and done, but grittier.
If this sounds like your cup of tea, it probably is. I liked it just fine, though I don't see myself taking any extended hikes in this lifetime!
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