INTO THE WOODS

Reese Witherspoon bought the rights to Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl with the intention of starring in the coveted Amy Dunne role herself. When David Ficher was brought on board to direct, he booted Witherspoon out of the role and replaced her with Rosamund Pike (thank the heavens he did). Witherspoon went off and set up the ultimate vanity project to appear in instead- a film in which she hikes alone for 2 hours and gets to “act” a lot. Directed by Dallas Buyers Club helmer Jean-Marc Vallée, Wild is a film which contains far more complex ideas than one might expect, but still ends up feeling extremely empty and forgettable.

Witherspoon, in all fairness, does a decent job in the role of Cheryl Strayed, a former heroine addict who takes herself on a wholly unexplained journey of self-discovery/spiritual awakening/making new friends. When not shouting at foxes and encountering countless men in the wilderness, all of whom are presented as potential rapists until proven otherwise, Cheryl gives an inner monologue on her miserable life and we get to see flashbacks to her time with her dying mother (Laura Dern). Dern has been nominated for an Oscar for her work in this film, as has Witherspoon, and it’s sadly not earned. She has little to do, few decent scenes and barely any notable dialogue. She gave a far superior performance in The Fault in Our Stars. The fragmented timeline of the flashbacks presents scenes consistent with adaptor/screenwriter Nick Hornby’s usual work. The Newsroom‘s Thomas Sadoski shows up in a small but interesting role.

Utterly pretentious, but- surprisingly- not aggressively so- Vallée’s film is at the very least a more thought-provoking work than his uninspired Dallas Buyers Club. While that film was saved by its exceptional acting talent, the cast on show in Wild are pretty much on a par with the writing and direction: it’s all FINE.