I've been wanting to check out
Into the Wild for a long time. I can finally cross this off my to-watch list. I've heard a lot of great things about the movie and even though I'm a fan of 'Road Trip' movies, I was bit unsure if
Into the Wild would be able to hold my interest based on the Trailer I saw many years earlier. Surprisingly, the movie is very good and kept me engage from start to finish. Basiclly, the movie is a coming of age true-life story of a man that sets out on a journey to find himself and along the way touches the lives of those he meets on the open road in a deep and profound way. I loved the actors they got to play these people (
Catherine Keener, Vince Vaughn, Zach Galifianakis, Kristen Stewart and
Hal Holbrook). Yes, even
Kristen was good. Nothing groundbreaking here, but definitely good enough for the role she played.
I especially liked
Keener and
Holbrook's characters though. Their stories in particular kept things interesting. But the star of the movie is definitely
Emile Hirsch. His transformation near the end of the film is what everyone seems to want to talk about. I admire any actor that can throw themselves completely into their role and his transformation is startling to see on the screen. Shocking is more like it. How he was able to function on set having lost all that weight.....Anyway, definitely worth a
Rent.
Sean Penn did a great job putting this movie together. Incredible soundtrack by the way. One last thing, it was crazy seeing Kristen and
Jena Malone in the same movie.
Emile's character is so dominating here that I didn't really even noticed that
Jena was playing his sister. I thought it was Kristen. But when
Kristen shows up later in the movie, I thought there was some weird subtext going on like they were purposely pretending not to know each other. Haha.
William Hurt and
Marcia Gay Harden also co-star.