Wild

Name: Wild
Genre: Biography, Drama
Released: December 3, 2014
Duration: 115 min
Rating: 74
Cast: Gaby Hoffmann, Laura Dern, Michiel Huisman, Reese Witherspoon

2014

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 47 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 237 Ratings

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7.2

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7.2	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 237 Ratings

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Wild

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Movie Details & Credits

Fox Searchlight Pictures | Release Date: December 3, 2014 | R

Starring: Gaby Hoffmann, Laura Dern, Michiel Huisman, Reese Witherspoon

Summary: After years of reckless behavior, a heroin addiction and the destruction of her marriage, Cheryl Strayed (Reese Witherspoon) makes a rash decision. Haunted by memories of her mother Bobbi (Laura Dern) and with absolutely no experience, she sets out to hike more than a thousand miles on the Pacific Crest Trail all on her own. [FoxAfter years of reckless behavior, a heroin addiction and the destruction of her marriage, Cheryl Strayed (Reese Witherspoon) makes a rash decision. Haunted by memories of her mother Bobbi (Laura Dern) and with absolutely no experience, she sets out to hike more than a thousand miles on the Pacific Crest Trail all on her own. [Fox Searchlight Pictures]… Expand

Director: Jean-Marc Vallée

Genre(s): Biography, Drama

Rating: R

Runtime: 115 min

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Critic Reviews

100

Mike Scott

Dec 19, 2014

There are other movies out this year that are more technically ambitious than Wild (I'm thinking "Birdman.") There are others that are wider-reaching in scope and sheer audacity (the 12-years-in-the-making "Boyhood"). But there aren't any others that offer the power and profundity of Wild. This movie is a gift. It's also a journey. Read full review

Stephanie Zacharek

Dec 2, 2014

Both the material and the setting seem to have shaken something loose in Witherspoon (who is also one of the movie's producers): She's moved further away from those uptight, humorless romantic-comedy cuties she played in the mid 2000s and more toward the breezy, blunt, self- determined characters of her early career. Read full review

McClatchy-Tribune News Service Roger Moore

Dec 2, 2014

As he did with “The Dallas Buyers’ Club,” director Jean-Marc Vallée covers this inner and outer journey with a minimum of fuss. The flashbacks and their revelations, filling in the puzzle, are sparingly doled out. The stunning scenery Cheryl hikes through is barely noticed. Read full review

Kimberley Jones

Dec 10, 2014

Wild lands some hard punches, but it can’t sustain the impact. Some of that lies in its inherited arc: Strayed found some peace – the whole point of the trek – but arriving-at-peace is less provocative than the struggle, at least in a movie. Read full review

Peter Rainer

Dec 4, 2014

Too much of Wild is broken up by flashbacks that tend to dissipate rather than enhance Strayed’s trek. At times she is swallowed up almost to the point of vanishing by the immensity of the vistas. Read full review

Lou Lumenick

Dec 3, 2014

Laura Dern — only nine years older than Witherspoon’s fresh-faced 38 — could also net a Best Supporting Actress nod for her outstanding work as Cheryl’s spunky and nurturing mothe. Read full review

Andrew O'Hehir

Dec 4, 2014

Wild is a Hollywood holiday movie "based on a true story," meaning that its view of reality is conditioned by the three-act structure and the pop-Christian teleology of sin and repentance. Read full review

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User Reviews

RamonGuerrero

Feb 13, 2015

Reese Witherspoon gave the performance of her career, by bringing desperation, humor, loneliness, and plenty of sadness, in a tale of drugs, sex and lost.

4 of 10 users found this helpful46

james417

Oct 12, 2015

An engaging, emotionally resonant piece of filmmaking.

Check this movie here http://www.watchfree.to/watch-2a1024-Wild-movie-online-free-putlocker.html

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

moviemitch96

Dec 24, 2014

A very well made and often times heartfelt film. Director Jean-Marc Vallee once again delivers with another great film. While it didn't quite live up to last year's Dallas Buyers Club for me, he still managed to make a genuine-feeling film full of life. The story was a little slow at times,A very well made and often times heartfelt film. Director Jean-Marc Vallee once again delivers with another great film. While it didn't quite live up to last year's Dallas Buyers Club for me, he still managed to make a genuine-feeling film full of life. The story was a little slow at times, but was easily made up for thanks to Reese Witherspoon's honest and soulful performance. Her Oscar buzz is very deserving and I have to agree with everyone else that it's her best performance since her Oscar win for 2005"s Walk the Line. I also really enjoyed Laura Dern, who also gave a worthwhile performance. Overall, while the story and pacing didn't quite live up to my expectations, it's Witherspoon's performance that made the film memorable for me and made it worth it in the end.… Expand

1 of 4 users found this helpful13

jeanrenoir13

Dec 24, 2014

An okay movie. Far from great, or even particularly intelligent. Just the ultimate Sixties feminist cliche tale of "finding myself," "loving myself," and "affirming all the dumb, sleazy things I did" because "I gotta be me" and "without ALL I've done I wouldn't be the wonderful woman I nowAn okay movie. Far from great, or even particularly intelligent. Just the ultimate Sixties feminist cliche tale of "finding myself," "loving myself," and "affirming all the dumb, sleazy things I did" because "I gotta be me" and "without ALL I've done I wouldn't be the wonderful woman I now am," etc., etc. Compare the skills and brains involved in a really good movie like Force Majeure with the level of intelligence and art in Wild. No contest. Witherspoon and everyone else is "good," but trite, since all the roles are trite themselves. Hornby did the best he could with the material he was given, but that material itself is the core problem with this film--the trite vision of Strayed herself. Her book was like a machine for great sales to female book clubs, the people who centrally determine best sellers in America, because it seems a little "edgy" in their context, but is finally very flattering in an "I am woman!" and so are you way.… Expand

0 of 2 users found this helpful02

Lyn

Dec 26, 2014

I admired Cheryl Strayed's book very much -- the sheer harsh honesty of it. The movie does a pretty good job conveying the pain that drove her to hike the Pacific Crest Trail, through some nicely done flashbacks. Still, I had a hard time with Witherspoon in the lead role (and she is onI admired Cheryl Strayed's book very much -- the sheer harsh honesty of it. The movie does a pretty good job conveying the pain that drove her to hike the Pacific Crest Trail, through some nicely done flashbacks. Still, I had a hard time with Witherspoon in the lead role (and she is on screen virtually every moment). Cheryl Strayed the author actually is attractive, but it's hard to make a "real person" out of Witherspoon's perky, porcelain-skinned perfection merely by mussing her hair. I would love to have seen what an actress like Saoirse Ronan might have done with the part.… Expand

1 of 3 users found this helpful12

NightReviews

Dec 7, 2014

It seems like there is no better way of finding yourself, than by losing yourself completely.

Such is the case with Reese Witherspoon’s newest feature Wild, based on the widely popular New York Times Best Seller and Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 favourite “Wild: From Lost to Found on the PacificIt seems like there is no better way of finding yourself, than by losing yourself completely.

Such is the case with Reese Witherspoon’s newest feature Wild, based on the widely popular New York Times Best Seller and Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 favourite “Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail” written by Cheryl Strayed.

Wild is based on a memoir, and Strayed did in fact trek the whole 1,100 mile Pacific Crest National Scenic Trail all by herself, and tells a compelling story of survival, wit and true courage, but never is her story original enough for us to really care. Overplayed images of crossing bridges, promises of clean slates and new life, as well as images of iconic natural beauty and wildlife, are some of the reasons Wild never quite settles in with audiences, as it should.

Witherspoon, who dropped out of Tim Burton’s Big Eyes (a role that eventually went to Amy Adams) may have found another passion project and Oscar-caliber character as Strayed. Embodying a troubled young woman who struggled with heroin, constant adultery and the tragic death of her loving and inspiration mother Bobbi (played saintly by the radiant Laura Dern), Witherspoon easily transcends through the screen and into our hearts as a highly empathetic character. Is Strayed a drug addict? Sex addict? Rehabilitating feminist? Many of these questions aren’t really answered by the film’s end or in the countless flashbacks (that easily takes up an alarming amount the film’s runtime) of Strayed highly traumatizing and delicate life, which poses some of the many problems of the film as a whole.

Quebecois filmmaker and go-to Oscar caliber actors-director Jean Marc-Vallée, who helped Matthew McConaughey complete his A-List status as Ronald Woodruff in the highly appreciated Dallas Buyers Club, helms Witherspoon in a highly clichéd and simple narrative where a woman’s only choice and answer for change, is nature. Cue scenes of Strayed connecting with the wildlife by howling with the nearby wolves, numerous shots of her looking up and talking to herself as well as some of the most over-quoted identity passages ever written by Emily Dickenson, Ralph Waldo Emerson and of course Robert Frost, and Wild sinks in the footsteps of other memorable identity finding nature films.

One film in particular that comes to mind, released just last year, is John Curran’s Tracks starring Mia Wasikowska and Adam Driver. Not only does the film tell the story of Robyn Davidson, an author and true living bohemian who conquered the 1,700 mile journey along the west Australian deserts with four camels and a trusty sidekick canine, but Curran offers audiences an audacious and highly inspiring symbolic film filled with deep purpose, meaning and thought. Absent of all the highly Americanized gloss, including; narration, heavy-drama flashbacks and distracting pop culture references found in Wild, Tracks tells the story of a woman who suffered harsher condition, during a lengthier hike with less help from the outside world. By watching both films, it becomes clear that Wild is a film that reaffirms America’s obsession with keeping stories of Americans more relevant than individuals internationally, sadly.

Witherspoon may have delivered the performance of her life as Strayed, a woman who seems to overly dramatize the tragedies in her life by taking drastic measures. Strayed, whose life could have easily been made into a soap-opera miniseries, had the huge privilege of having her book connect with many housewives and identity-riddled middle aged women who found hope and purpose through the pages of her memoir, giving the film adaptation traction and leverage. Witherspoon, who in addition to starring in the film, acts as the films producer as well, transforms herself to a thin Strayed whose conquests from California to Oregon push the bodily limits of a highly tormented and dumbfounded character whose purpose of the quest is questioned repeatedly and given no due sympathy based on her lack of commitment to really anything at all in her life.

Thankfully, the film isn’t all that bad. One of the many strengths of Wild that isn’t ever understood or put into perspective in other films is its ability to relate to many of the average audience members who would ever think of doing such a journey. Vallée sets-up perfect scenes of hiking preparation that blend perfectly with Witherspoon’s mix of humour and daft seriousness, such as her first encounter with a backpack that is twice her height and triple the size of our protagonist. At some points in the beginning of Strayed’s journey, we can’t help but notice Witherspoon resemble a white-washed, patriotic version of Dora the Explorer with her handy-dandy backpack and all the useful things inside it (condoms included, if you could believe it), making someone who is just undeniable to relate to.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

loydbour

Jan 4, 2015

One of the worst movies I have ever seen .Painfully slow and boring.I am surprised Ms Weitherspoon took on such a poor script.I go to the movies every Sunday for the last 40 years .

4 of 15 users found this helpful411

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73	#73 Most Discussed Movie of 2014
37	#37 Most Shared Movie of 2014