For the last 3 or 4 years, every time I went into a book store the book on which this film is based just stared at me, enticing me to buy it and read it. This summer I finally did. At first I did not know it was a piece of non-fiction but it was supposedly a very gripping work. I could not finish the book for a variety of reasons- sloppy pacing, unnecessary exposition, bad storytelling. However, the biggest problem I had was the main character. Like Catcher in the Rye or The Kite Runner the main character is not someone I could like. The biggest difference was that I eventually grew to like the other main characters, but the main guy in this book never grew on me. After reading incredible reviews of the movie and having an interest in Sean Penn as a director, I went in with a sense of guarded optimism. Would the main character still bother me on the screen?
Chris McCandless(Emile Hirsch) graduates from college and has decided he needs to start living. In order to live though, he has to leave everything behind- he gives his entire $24,000.00 savings to a charity, cuts up credit cards, burns his social security card and licence- and he just leaves. He tells no one where he is going and he assumes the name Alexander Supertramp. A "tramp" is a person who travels the country, just living off the land and generosity of others. He hitch hikes, kayaks, walks and runs across the United States. Without looking back, Chris has a dream of living in the Alaskan wild for a few weeks. He occupies his nights by reading London and Tolstoy. Along the way he meets Wayne Westerburg(Vince Vaughn) who gives hi ma job and a place to stay for a little while and he meets a hippie couple, Rainey(Brian Dierker) and Jan Burres(Katherine Keener), who take him in and later in the movie when they re-connect they become a surrogate family for Chris/Alex. Burres has a son of her own and she seems concerned that Chris isn't concerned with his own family. Through the narration of his sister, Carine(Jena Malone) we find out that their parents were horrible to each other and to their kids. Their father, Walt(William Hurt) beat their mother (Marcia Gay Harden) and their mother was actually married to another man when she and Walt got pregnant with Chris. They were out of touch with reality and Chris' trip was like one big screw you.
This is a beautiful movie told in a nonlinear format switching between his journey across the country and his time in the Alaska wild. The script is amazing, the acting incredible and the care with which Sean Penn treats the subject is moving. The cinematography captures how gorgeous this country can be and it makes Alaska looks like the most beautiful place on the planet. Emile Hirsch is picture perfect as Chris. He is charming and likable and it is easy to see why so many people loved him. His physical transformation is extreme and incredible, but his acting is even better. He embodies the restless spirit of Chris, a man looking for his own happiness without a single care for the people he hurt and who cared for him. However, through all of the positives, I had a very hard time sitting through the movie. Where the book left me weeping loudly aching for the people Chris left behind, this movie had me weeping silently in the back of the theater for the same reasons. As his sister narrates the whole story with a sense of sadness, I felt for her as she had no idea where her brother was or what had become of him. Chris and Carine were best friends who only survived childhood because of each other and he just left her with these awful parents. On top of that, Chris quotes Thoreau about truth, but Chris tells no one he meets any sort of truth. They don't know his real name, where he really came from what he is running from and in the end, none of these people will really know what happened.
Towards the end of his journey before he heads to Alaska Chris meets an older man named Rob Franz(Hal Holbrook). Rob has lived alone for quite some time because his family was killed by a drunk driver and he and Chris form a very strong bond. Rob shows him how to do leather carving and Chris gets Rob to try new things and it is incredibly moving. Yet, when Rob is ready to drop Chris off so he can go on his adventure he asks Chris if he can adopt him and be like his Grandfather and Chris unable to admit he loves this man just says "We will talk about it when I get back" and it was the most heart wrenching moment in the movie for me. Holbrook gives one of the most honest performances I have seen this year and his impression will not soon be forgot. And it killed me that this man would not find out Chris/Alex died until nearly a year later. Also mentioned in the book is that Rob followed in Chris' footsteps by selling all of his stuff and buying a motorhome to travel the country in. It was his hope that Chris would come back and they could travel the country together.
Sean Penn obviously envies the journey Chris took because of the care and sincerity in telling his story, but he leaves a lot out and adds a few things as well and I understand why he did it. He wanted to make Chris seem more heroic or less idiotic. For example, in the movie no one ever tells him it is a bad idea to go into Alaska because he is not really a wilderness guy. In the book everyone tries to dissuade his trek. He brushes them off because he figures it can't be that difficult to live off of the land. Penn makes Chris a much better hunter than he really was. Again trying to show that Chris had every reason to believe he would not die up there, but the real guy was not very good and in fact died quicker in the book than in the movie. Obviously things are always changed for movies but as someone who was badly affected by the book, I was put off a bit that Penn decided not to include these important points.
There are many ways to take this movie. I think it is a gorgeous, very great movie, but it was hard for me to sit through because of the people surrounding Chris. Most people see a beautiful journey by a brave young man trying to find his place on earth and that is certainly there too. Penn skews the movie in his direction, but he doesn't put Chris fully on a pedestal so someone watching the movie could form his or her own opinion of Chris, of his journey and of the people around him.
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