Review Of “Into The Wild” & “Gone Baby Gone”

Who among us when we were in our early twenties didn’t have questions about life, society, our parents, their values? I certainly did, as did most of my compadres.

Christopher McCandless did too. He graduated from Emory in the early 90’s. At which point, his intelligence and bubbling resentment toward his oft-warring parents manifested itself. Rather than going to Harvard Law School, as he might have done, he set out on the highway looking for adventure. And solace. And understanding. And escape. He seemed in search of the answer to the Big Question, though he probably couldn’t articulate the query.

He didn’t tell his folks. Or his sister whom he loved. Two years later he met up with inevitability in the wilds of Alaska. Along the way, his focus prevented him from hearing the answers to many of his ruminations.

Sean Penn’s film, Into The Wild, is an unforgettable and unforgiving cinemazation of the true story. This film is as hard as it is hard to forget.

Emile Hirsch plays the young searcher. His performance displays perfect pitch. Though a bit more back story with some greater explanation of his angst might have been nice, it is no impediment. He is on a quest. Sadly nothing will dissuade him from it.

Along the way he hooks up with folks wise and caring. He is nurtured, then he splits. Among those who might have influenced him but were discarded are Hal Holbrook, Vince Vaughn and the always amazing Catherine Keener.

These tales are most always sad ones, those where youth seek solutions to inner turmoil. In Sean Penn’s sure hands, this one cuts deeper. The visuals enhance the story. It is rendered without artifice. There are no gratuitous scenes where the audience is trickerated into faux emotion.

Hirsch’s character meets his end, as we know from the get go he will. The folly of his wandering is apparent from the start. But the wandering itself is fully within him. He is resolute, as doomed as that might be. I, for one, felt his pain. I understood his issues. Having “run away” at his age, I understand him, and admire the lengths and ingenuity of his meanderings.

But it is sad. And good films that portray that deserve our attention. Into The Wild is absolutely one of those.

* * * * *

Gone Baby Gone is another film directed by someone mostly known as an actor. This time, Ben Affleck. The effort isn’t half bad, but far from worthy of the bouquets being tossed in its direction.

The last half hour of the movie takes some plot twists and turns which are totally improbable and, for an intelligent moviegoer, unbelievable. Until then I liked the film — a lot — but it fell apart precipitously as it ground to its skewed conclusion.

Casey Affleck, the director’s younger brother, is the centerpiece as a private investigator who gets involved when a youngster from his neighborhood is kidnapped. He is not as smart as he is determined to discover the truth about the situation.

Brother Ben in the director’s chair certainly nails the quirks of his hometown. Those details work to make the film more interesting in its early stages. The mystery of the girl’s disappearance makes for a compelling storyline. Until, as I already said, it falls apart from unbelievability at the end.

1 Comment(s)

Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI

Leave a comment