Movie-"Into the Wild"

This film got pretty good reviews, and I hate to go against the crowd and all, but I did not think it was that great.

Into the Wild (and this is my take) is about a spoiled rich kids whose family life has some dysfunction. So he decides he is going to leave the consumer rat race and be alone in nature. He becomes single minded in his quest to do so, leaving hurting people behind, and not giving a crap. He says to another character, and I paraphrase, "Your problem is that you think happiness lies in relationships between people, and that is not true."

Oh what pretentious BS! At the end he realizes that he was wrong, that he had become so egotistical in the pursuit of his own philosophy, that he missed all the chances for actually being happy WITH people. What an ass!

The acting was good. You have to give some props to Emile Hirsch for taking his part so seriously he looks like he is starving to death, as the character did. But Sean Penn's direction is heavy handed here. A few things just stood out so badly to me: When he is on the road and eating an apple and talking to the apple, and looks into the camera as if it is another character, his glee in inventing a shower and the shower scene that goes in slow-mo as he is shaking his wet hair and and water is spraying off, and last, the skinniness itself. Sean Penn works way too hard to show us how skinny he is, almost like saying, wow, look at this actor and his commitment to the role, he looks like a cadaver! Way too heavy handed.

Hal Holbrook received a nomination as best supporting actor for his role in the film. And he did a fine job. I believed in his character. But I did not believe in the relationship between him and the main character.

I just saw this character as egotistical and spoiled, self centered and hurtful. And I saw his journey as plain stupid. I did not feel sympathy for him, did not believe he was like Thoreau at all in his reasons for wanting to get to nature, and actively disliked his unrepentant hurtfulness to other people.

I guess it would be hard to like the movie if I feel that way, huh?