Into the Wild: DVD, HD DVD Review (2008)

But at what cost?

From Sean Penn, who wrote and directed the movie from Jon Krakauer's bestselling nonfiction book, “Wild” is a first-rate account of a story that, depending on your perspective, did or didn't end so well for Christopher Johnson McCandless (a terrific Emile Hirsch).

Some will recall that McCandless was the young man from a wealthy Virginia family who in 1990 chose not enter Harvard Law School or the workforce upon graduating from Emory University. Instead, he gave away his life savings to charity, set fire to the rest of his cash and his personal identification, and disappeared without a word into a more challenging world--the wild.

Penn's film follows McCandless' two-year journey into himself via the outside world, which was driven by the need to escape his controlling, bickering parents (Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt) even though in doing so, it also meant leaving behind his beloved younger sister, Carine (Jenna Malone).

It's she who narrates the story, filling in key background information about her brother while Penn weaves back and forward through time in an effort to understand why McCandless did what he did.

What makes the movie so emotionally rich are the people McCandless meets along the way, all of whom offer kindness, insight, clarity, debate.

The acting is strong and memorable, with Catherine Keener, Brian Dierker, Vince Vaughn, Kristen Stewart and especially the Academy Award-nominated Hal Holbrook shaking the movie alive with its mournful undercurrent.

Rated R. Grade: A

Read the unedited review here.