This is the real Cheryl Strayed (and the pack she nicknamed “The Monster”). She is the author of Wild, the memoir she wrote about her cathartic adventure hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. I haven’t met her (yet) but I have huge admiration for her courage, honesty, and for her writing.
In 2012 Reese Witherspoon purchased the film rights to Wild, hired novelist and screenwriter Nick Hornby (High Fidelity) to adapt it for the screen, and Jean-Marc Vallee to direct. Ms. Witherspoon produced and stars in what has become one of the biggest films of 2014 – garnering Golden Globe nominations for Best Film and Best Actress.
I saw the film this weekend, having read the prologue and first two chapters earlier. It’s difficult to be objective in comparing the two art forms. They’re intrinsically different – one is explicitly visual while the other relies on the imagination. I always think it’s better to read the book first; it’s the primary source and descriptor of the characters and action. It’s rare for a reader to see a film and say he or she thought the characters were portrayed exactly as imagined.
I thought Nick Hornby’s screenplay was surprisingly faithful to Ms. Strayed’s story, but in the end it was the slow evolution of character in her writing that made the character come alive for me. The actress did a good job with the physical role but couldn’t, by my lights, fully show the internal development of the character.
The story is about recovery and self-knowledge – the premature death of her mother, the unraveling of her marriage, her descent into heroin addiction, and how hiking 1000 miles of the PCT gave her back her life and a purpose. The film is worth seeing but I found it distracting and ultimately dissatisfying as art, because in order to link the story lines it has to rely on flashbacks and jump cuts that break up the progression of the main story – her odyssey on the PCT.
BTW: Strayed is not her birth name. She renamed herself on the trail and the “layered definitions’ of the verb form resonated with her – “to wander from the proper path, to deviate from the direct course, to be lost, to become wild to be without a mother or father, to be without a home, to move about aimlessly in search of something, to diverge or digress.”
Year-end is a movie lover’s favorite time.. Most of the films that want to be considered for Golden Globe and Oscar nominations are released then. I’ve seen most of them. Wild is a contender although I will be surprised if it wins for Best Picture. In the meantime I am almost finished with the book and reengaged with the author’s quest.
The book is full of insights and musings, things that pass through the author’s mind and something film is unable to capture effectively. Here is one that resonated with me.
