I am not one of the rabid fans of Jon Krakauer’s 1997 book “Into the Wild” awaiting the film version with excitement and trepidation. Actually, given that it was directed by the Oscar-hungry hambone Sean Penn and that I understood it to be a true story of a passionate young dude who just, like, had to get away from society, man, I was prepared for a lengthy hipper-than-thou travelogue through Alaska. The all-Eddie Vedder soundtrack concerned me as well.
I was surprised, delighted, and moved, however, by “Into the Wild.” This heartbreaking story about Chris McCandless, an intelligent but immature guy with serious parental issues, was actually very mature. Rather than lionizing his misguided-but-passionate attempts to carve out a very individual and severe life for himself, the film was so effective because it showed the incredible pain he caused to those who loved him, which, since he was such a genuinely compelling guy, was virtually every one who met him.
And in those supporting performances, including an Oscar-nominated one by Hal Holbrook, the film finds another major strength. Holbrook, Catherine Keener, and Vince Vaughn fill out the emotional context of the story. McCandless is running specifically from his parents, and finds parental substitutes everywhere. Once these adults begin to care for him, they cannot help but feel his parents’ pain at the bewildering loss of their son.
Of course the most important performance is that of Emile Hirsch as Chris McCandless. One can feel so many different emotions for this character – admiration at his courage, derision at his miscalculations, sympathy for the disconnection he felt that drove him completely away from everyone else. Hirsch creates enough room for all of these. Charming but distant, intelligent but blind, young viewers will want to be him and parents will want to help him.
So, we can score this in Sean Penn’s “watchable” column, in between “Sweet and Lowdown,” and “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.” In his direction of this film, he showed uncharacteristic restraint, and that has made all the difference. And the soundtrack, which finds Eddie Vedder toning down his Eddie Vedder impression, is awesome, too. These boys, unlike the subject of this film, have grown up.
“Into the Wild,” is currently available to rent.
The characters in “The Savages” have run away from their parents, too, but just a few states away, into book-strewn apartments and emotionally stunted intellectualism. This kind of run away doesn’t make for quite the visual excitement of the Alaskan wilderness, but this well-written film (for which screenwriter Tamara Jenkins was nominated for an Academy Award) was also very powerful. Its only flaw was that it was so well-written, it was fairly painful to watch. Call it a feel-bad movie.
Concerning the decline of the aged father of Savage siblings Laura Linney and Phillip Seymour Hoffman, “The Savages” follows their struggle to deal with the guilt of putting him in a nursing home, even while Linney finishes an autobiographical play about a cold and abusive father.
Both she and Hoffman have grown up to be defiantly lonely intellectuals, immersed in the study and production of theater. Hoffman is a professor of drama, finishing a book on Brecht. Linney avails herself of the office supplies where she temps to apply for grants and fellowships. Only art sustains them, but it is only in the final scenes of the film, in the midst of a more vital, live performance, that it does them any good.
This is true of the film, which is accomplished, well-executed, impeccably performed and a little chilly. Its fidelity to the nuances of life is both its strength and its weakness. This is a strong film in a certain kind of way, as a faithful recreation of reality, but in another way, it suffers from a lack of a dramatic filter, one that takes life and makes it into art.
“The Savages” is currently available to rent.
Contact Asia Frey at afrey@lagniappemobile.com.
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