Ed's Review Dot Com

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.

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Voltage Pictures, Truth Entertainment (II),

Matthew McConaughey, Jared Leto, Jennifer Garner, Denis O’Hare, Steve Zahn, Griffin Dunne, Michael O’Neill, Dallas Roberts, Kevin Rankin

Ron Woodroof (Matthew McConnaughey) is a hard living, heavy drinking, drug using part time electrician and part time rodeo clown. He lives life hard and fast. He’s very homophobic and when his doctor tells him he is suffering from aids and has only 6 months to live, he gets really mad. I should say this is in 1987 and aids was pretty much a death sentence in those days. While in the hospital with a very unusual roommate Rayon (Jared Leto) Ron accepts the fact that he is really very sick, and starts researching the disease. When he finds out that AZT is being used to treat the disease, but AZT is illegal in the US, Ron sets out to get the medicine for himself and Rayon at any price, even if it means becoming an outlaw. This film is based on a true story.

This film garnered lots and lots of awards this season. Many people think this is Matthew McConnaughey’s best work ever. I was not highly impressed with this film. It wasn’t bad, but I didn’t really enjoy the characters. That’s not really anybody’s fault, I suppose, because of the fact that it’s a true story. When you’re playing a real person, I guess you have to play that person. But I don’t think any of the people in this film are people I would really care much about. It was interesting that Matthew McConnaughy lost a TON of weight to look like a raggedy aids patient. That was pure dedication, and I hope there are no long term effects from that. But I just didn’t get invested in the story that much. I appreciated what he went through and what he did, but he was a rather shady guy to begin with, and you can’t help but have the feeling that he kind of deserved what he got after all. There was probably a little extra embellishment to, or poetic license, if you will. I suspect it wasn’t as exciting as the story made it appear, but I suppose that is to be expected too. All in all, I found it a little flat and was just not blown away with the story or the acting, and I just didn’t care for the characters. This is not a pleasant story, so don’t pick this if you’re expecting an uplifting and heart-warming story. It’s certainly not that. In fact, when it was over I didn’t really care much about it, and just sort of shrugged and though, “Gee, that wasn’t worth the effort.” At least it was a rental.

EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog