Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée and written by Nick Hornby based on the autobiographical book by Cheryl Strayed, the film stars Reese Witherspoon and Laura Dern. Witherspoon plays Strayed, a woman who loses control of her life after her divorce and the death of her mother (Dern). Determined to find herself again, she decides to hike the Pacific Crest trail, which is over one thousand miles in length and runs from Mexico to Canada. I think that Witherspoon did a fantastic job in an unglamorous and physically demanding role. She was in practically every frame of the film and she held it together very well. Laura Dern was an odd choice to play the mother, since she is only nine years older than Witherspoon, and I didn't think there was anything remarkable about her performance. Her nomination should have gone to a number of more deserving performances (off the top of my head, I single out Carmen Ejogo in Selma). The film itself is technically outstanding because a film about a woman alone in the wilderness for months could have gotten repetitive and boring, and it was none of those. The fundamental problem with the film, however, is that the main character just isn't likable. Frankly, Cheryl comes off as unsympathetic, and so I wasn't emotionally invested in her journey at all, and so that negated the entire point of the film for me. I found it to be just a decent, average film.
Should you see it: Yes
Grade: B
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