Into the Wild Movie Review

My in-laws are in town and we had a relaxing night on Friday. We rented the movie Into The Wild, directed by Sean Penn, which had a great cast (Emile Hirsch, William Hurt, Marcia Gay Harden, Vince Vaughan, etc.) It follows the real life adventure of Chris McCandless (Emile Hirsch), who shortly after graduating college decides to reject the world around him for a more simple life-style. He destroys any identification he has of himself, gives away all his money and sets out on the road. After a year or two of many adventures he decides to take on the Alaskan wilderness to experience simplicity to the extreme. I don’t want to give away too much of what happens but the movie is basically a soul searching endeavor. Along the way he meets people who challenge him, in particular an older man Ron Franz a widower who helps Chris see God’s role in his life. It’s the relationships he makes the make the film so good.
The movie was long, but flowed nicely. I remember seeing the Nightline story done on this guys years ago and it was nice to see it all played out in this movie (which is also a book). Not a family film; although, I think it’s a great thing for older teens (17/18) to watch with parents. I’m going to give it an A because it was moving, and gives a lot of substance to walk away with.