Well Deserved Praise

Sick Product of a Sick System

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Short and Simple Review by WubsTheFadgerThe acting is great throughout the entire film. Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern both do an exceptional job at portraying their respective characters. The characters themselves are deep and well thought out. Reese Witherspoon, in particularly, does a great job at playing a character that is broken and wants to be fixed.The story is really good. There are moments that are uplifting and moments that are hard on the heart. It is a story about redemption and finding peace in being human. The story is easy to follow and has some heavy moments throughout.The scenery is amazing. The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) is an amazing location. As the movie progresses, you get to see different landscapes and scenery.For me, there was a good amount of nudity in the film that could have been avoided. I think they could have implied the sexual acts without showing them. I do like seeing Reese naked, but some of the scenes did not need to be in the film.The ending is good but it left me wanting more. I wanted a stronger realization.Pros: Great acting, deep characters, compelling story, some emotional impact, and amazing sceneryCons: Some needless nudity and needed a stronger sense of realization Overall Rating: 8.3/10P.S. If you enjoyed this film, you might also enjoy Into The Wild. Into The Wild is one of my all time favorite films. It is very similar to this film but has, in my opinion, a stronger ending in terms of realization.

This movie is about how a young woman who has suffered much in her brief life-mother dying of cancer, abusive alcoholic father, drug addiction, sex addition-discovers her true self and her will to live by undertaking an arduous three month long walking trip along l along Americas West coast.- the Pacific Crest trail The movie is watchable but is marred by too much cursing, graphic depictions of sex and bad language.

I like biographies and from this movie I glimpsed that probably the book it is based on was worth reading. The movie is very good as well, with Reese Witherspoon doing a good job portraying this woman who decides to hike 1100 miles in order to come to terms with her grief and put her life in order. However I have to give kudos to the director and screenwriters who managed to put this idea into a digestible movie. I would think it is very difficult.The film is very introspective, it touches on subjects like the death of a mother, the decay of a relationship and of a person until the only solution is a hard look inward. A refreshing film, but not one that feels entertaining or light of funny. You gotta be in the mood.

The film has many useful attributes, the most obvious of which is that shows how to heal after hitting a emotional bottom on one's own. Indeed, the idea of working through the trauma on one's own is key to the film.This core message is one that makes intuitive sense. However, the logic of this message is most often ignored in the topic that the film deals with most directly: opiate abuse and a related emotional bottoming out.Wild gives a real-world example on how to turn a physical journey into a journey oneself, again after abuse of opiate drugs and what looks like a "bottom." However, rather than go to an AA or 12 Step meeting and chant over and over again that she is powerless over her drug of choice, and even her own life, the heroine takes on an amazing mental and physical challenge and proves that she is anything but "powerless." I'm sure the intentions of the author of the book that inspired the film, or even the makers of the film were not thinking of drug treatment or the increasing controversy surrounding AA and 12 Step, nonetheless the film provides interesting commentary on what many think is commonplace knowledge on drug treatment.AA and 12 Step attempt to cultivate feelings of personal powerless in members and insist that this helps to foster a healthier individual and is recovery. Yet, in all other contexts concerned with healing empowerment is a positive. The only groups that consistently work to undermine an individuals sense of competence are religious cults, which should suggest that AA and 12 Step is not something that actually is going to be healing for most people.This is not to say that everyone needs to hike 1100 miles, but it does point that the human beings tend to be happiest and healthiest when they feel empowered and able to meet challenges on their own.