As a young lad, one of my favorite books was “Into the Wild” by Jon Krakauer. But if I had one criticism of the life and death of Christopher McCandless AKA Alexander Supertramp, it would have been the lack of sex and drugs in his journey. Lucky for me, Cheryl Strayed (yes, that is her actual last name) decided to fill the role of that sexy, junkie Supertramp and survived to write a memoir about her journey which is being made into a film called ‘Wild.’ The film stars Reese Witherspoon, who decided to abandon her hair product and bag of cosmetics to play a torn-up, heroin-addled divorcee with nothing to lose. The trailer is reminiscent of the Sean Penn adaptation of “Into the Wild” except with more sex and drugs.
“You’re using heroin, and you’re having sex with anyone who asks.”
Sounds like my early 20’s. Except no one was asking me for sex… unless they wanted heroin! (JK JK JK!) The adaptated screenplay of Strayed’s book was written by Nick Hornby, and the cast includes Gaby Hoffmann, Laura Dern, Michiel Huisman, Charles Baker, Kevin Rankin, and Thomas Sadoski. While the trailer kind of feels like your typical art-house Oscar-bait trailer intended to make you think that Reese Witherspoon should win an Oscar for simply being brave enough to not wear makeup (guess who else doesn’t wear makeup, ME! WHERE’S MY OSCAR NOD?!), I am still pretty pumped to see this movie. I have a soft spot in my heart for stories about sex, drugs, solitude, travel, and redemption. Not even a figurative soft spot. I have a physically weaker heart, possibly from years and years of drug abuse. Maybe I should take a trip somewhere. I hear Alaska’s nice.