The incomprehensible lack of gongs for Sean Penn’s outstanding movie was by far the biggest shock at this year’s otherwise entirely predictable Oscars.
It’s based on an incredible true story. In 1992, top-flight graduate Christopher McCandless (a terrific turn by Leonardo DiCaprio-a-like Emile Hirsch, pictured right) dramatically rejected the glittering future in law his uptight middle-class parents had always dreamed of for him.
He cut up his credit cards, donated his savings to charity, burned his remaining dollars and set off into the wild.
Into the wild and Chris Mccandless photographs
McCandless, or Alexander Supertramp as he cringeworthily renamed himself, emerges as an intriguingly complex anti-hero – impossible to pigeonhole as a free spirit, a misanthrope or just a middle-class tosser.
McCandless’s extreme determination to survive, alone, in the wilds of Alaska stirs a vicarious wanderlust thrill, augmented by the ravishing location photography.
That said, this is no comforting Paulo Coelho self-help allegory. Nature here is ultimately pitiless. I won’t give away the ending but let’s just say in this forest, there ain’t no cute Disney bunnies to bake him cookies.
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