Fox Searchlight Pictures, Pacific Standard,

Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, Gaby Hoffmann, Brian Van Holt, W. Earl Brown, Thomas Sadoski, Kevin Rankin, Michiel Huisman, Mo McRae

Cheryl (Reese Witherspoon) has lost her mother and took it very badly. She turned her life inside out and shut out her husband and began sleeping around in mindless game of destruction. Her husband has pulled out of the marriage and she’s by herself. She sets out to hike the Pacific Crest Trail with no preparations, over 1000 extremely harsh and unforgiving miles trying to find some meaning in her life.

This was a surprisingly good movie. I had never heard of it, but I was very pleasantly surprised. Reese really did a great job. She had to carry a one woman show and was very much in command. The story was touching, and the suspense in the dangers of the trail were very accurately presented. I was really impressed with the script. The California scenery was stunningly filmed. Basically I found myself caught up in this film and really enjoyed it. No doubt about it, it’s pretty dark in a way. Cheryl is in a really bad place, and her life is really screwed up, and she makes some bad choices. Her journey is not enjoying the beauty of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, it’s more fighting herself every step of the way. I wanted to reach out and help her so many times, but you just have to suffer through it with her. She probably chose to walk the trail to have a lot of time alone to face the loss of everything and to cleanse her mind and soul. This movie is told in many small flashbacks so that you pick up why Cheryl is where she is. It’s not a story told chronologically, but the artistic way it shows her reminiscing on what has happened to bring her down lets us feel it bit by bit as she remembers it. This is intense for younger kids, and has an R rating for a good reason. Nothing is gratuitous, and the sexual scenes are short but a bit graphic, and definitely not for the under 16 crowd. Otherwise, this is a very well done film and I recommend it for adult viewers. Who knows, you may end up reevaluating your own life.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog

 

 

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