Into the Wild

The allure of the American wilderness is at the heart of this profoundly moving true story about amateur adventurer Christopher McCandless. In 1990, the 22-year-old college graduate abandoned his middle-class family and hitch-hiked across the country. His destination: a life of solitary contemplation in the snowy wastes of Alaska. Basing his screenplay on John Krakauer's bestselling biography, writer/director Sean Penn follows McCandless (played with tragic boyishness by Emile Hirsch) on his Thoreau-inspired quest to commune with nature. Penn's camera captures the grandeur of the American landscape magnificently, yet what really impresses is Hirsch's intuitive performance. His adventures on the road are offset by an intermittent voiceover from Carine McCandless (Jena Malone) detailing the impact of her brother's disappearance on their buttoned-down parents (the excellent William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden). Celebrating McCandless's beatnik philosophy while refusing to ignore his inherent selfishness, Penn crafts an entrancing movie that is by turns uplifting and tragic.