Wild is the only movie I've reviewed that kept me so involved that I didn't finish my popcorn.
And all it's really about is Reese Witherspoon reenacting the true story of a woman who walked the 1000-mile Pacific Coast Trail from the Mojave Desert to Washington state to see if she could shake loose from the depression caused by a pretty shabby lifestyle and the death of the only worthwhile person in it-- her mother, played by Laura Dern.
Lugging an overheavy pack through the wilderness without even a cell phone to call for help was not the most prudent thing for an attractive woman all by herself to do, and there is a good deal of suspense. I'm not sure Witherspoon cares much what happens to herself at the start, but her growth from a person so inept that she can't put up her tent and so immature that in a fit of temper she throws her walking shoes away, to a mature woman with skills and values, is fascinating to watch. And Witherspoon and everybody else, especially Dern, is totally convincing, whether sympathetic or not.
There's a fair amount of comedy, mostly character but at the start almost slapstick, and nothing is overacted, sentimental or melodramatic. Not even the inevitable beautiful scenery is allowed to take concentration away from Witherspoon's experience, and she is completely unglamorized, if a little lacking in sweat.
Very quick flashbacks eventually reveal a past life of escape into alcohol and drugs and unsatisfying sex, but her character has deliberately removed herself from those possibilities in order to see if she can, as she puts it, "walk myself back into the woman my mother thought I was."
Let me repeat: Watching Wild, I never finished my popcorn.
