First off, no disrespect to the actual people portrayed in this film. I don't know them, and I haven't read the book on which this film is based. Therefore, I'm writing this solely about the impression I had of these individuals after seeing the film.
Let's start with the positive things I can say about the film. I think Emile Hirsch did a fine job in this role. You can see his dedication play out on the screen and he gives the character a believable quality. Also, the nature shots and scenery were at times beautiful.
Now let's go onto the negative things.
1) The film did nothing to make me care about the supposed "hero". In fact, he's downright annoying, selfish, and hypocritical. He flees his home on a nature quest because he no longer wants to participate in society. We see flashbacks of his parents being abusive to each other, and the narration tells us that the parents often put the kids in the middle of it all.
I realize people can have pretty awful childhoods, but was his really that bad? The parents clearly were trying to do right in the present day (they attended his graduation and offered to buy him a new car!). People go through a lot worse and do not try to solve their problems by running away. It really made me feel like the main character was a spoiled brat who read a few literary classics about surviving in the wild, threw a tantrum and just ran away. I cannot sympathize with this character. I did not feel connected to this character. I actually rather disliked this character. He accuses society of being hurtful and people being so mean to each other, yet he seems completely unaware of how his actions have lead his family to suffer (particularly his sister, who REALLY did nothing to deserve it). It's really selfish and totally naive. At the same time, he offers advice to others about what life is all about. This guy didn't have a clue what life was about. He didn't have a clue how much pain he caused his family. He didn't realize how selfish his actions were.
I didn't realize until after the film ended that this movie was based on a true story. I feel very sorry for the family whom had to deal with this, and there may be more to the story that is left out of the movie. But as far as I'm concerned having just seen the movie, this guy seems absolutely crazy and rather horrible to cause so many people so much suffering (not to mention the police, state, and government resources wasted on trying to locate him).
2) I don't think the film can decide what it wants to be. Is it a nature flick? Is it a documentary? Is it a drama piece? It tries to be everything and misses on all accounts. This is not to say that there aren't good moments in the film. For instance, I rather liked the interactions the main character had with others on his nature quest. Yet, that's a minor part of the film. Most of the movie is just Emile Hirsch running around in the wilderness, and it's kind of boring. The film runs on about 45 minutes longer than it should have. For fun, try fast forwarding through the movie at 10x. You'll notice you can still catch almost everything that's happening. It's THAT redundant.
3) Horrible narration throughout the movie. The main character's sister does not have a good narrating voice, and the narration seemed almost unnecessary.
I could go on to say more, but it's not really worth it. I think there's too much to be grateful for in life to behave like the main character did. Maybe that's the point of the ending - that he came to the conclusion that he was wrong about life? It's not clear, but what is clear is that it was too late to get me to care about him or the movie.
Let's start with the positive things I can say about the film. I think Emile Hirsch did a fine job in this role. You can see his dedication play out on the screen and he gives the character a believable quality. Also, the nature shots and scenery were at times beautiful.
Now let's go onto the negative things.
1) The film did nothing to make me care about the supposed "hero". In fact, he's downright annoying, selfish, and hypocritical. He flees his home on a nature quest because he no longer wants to participate in society. We see flashbacks of his parents being abusive to each other, and the narration tells us that the parents often put the kids in the middle of it all.
I realize people can have pretty awful childhoods, but was his really that bad? The parents clearly were trying to do right in the present day (they attended his graduation and offered to buy him a new car!). People go through a lot worse and do not try to solve their problems by running away. It really made me feel like the main character was a spoiled brat who read a few literary classics about surviving in the wild, threw a tantrum and just ran away. I cannot sympathize with this character. I did not feel connected to this character. I actually rather disliked this character. He accuses society of being hurtful and people being so mean to each other, yet he seems completely unaware of how his actions have lead his family to suffer (particularly his sister, who REALLY did nothing to deserve it). It's really selfish and totally naive. At the same time, he offers advice to others about what life is all about. This guy didn't have a clue what life was about. He didn't have a clue how much pain he caused his family. He didn't realize how selfish his actions were.
I didn't realize until after the film ended that this movie was based on a true story. I feel very sorry for the family whom had to deal with this, and there may be more to the story that is left out of the movie. But as far as I'm concerned having just seen the movie, this guy seems absolutely crazy and rather horrible to cause so many people so much suffering (not to mention the police, state, and government resources wasted on trying to locate him).
2) I don't think the film can decide what it wants to be. Is it a nature flick? Is it a documentary? Is it a drama piece? It tries to be everything and misses on all accounts. This is not to say that there aren't good moments in the film. For instance, I rather liked the interactions the main character had with others on his nature quest. Yet, that's a minor part of the film. Most of the movie is just Emile Hirsch running around in the wilderness, and it's kind of boring. The film runs on about 45 minutes longer than it should have. For fun, try fast forwarding through the movie at 10x. You'll notice you can still catch almost everything that's happening. It's THAT redundant.
3) Horrible narration throughout the movie. The main character's sister does not have a good narrating voice, and the narration seemed almost unnecessary.
I could go on to say more, but it's not really worth it. I think there's too much to be grateful for in life to behave like the main character did. Maybe that's the point of the ending - that he came to the conclusion that he was wrong about life? It's not clear, but what is clear is that it was too late to get me to care about him or the movie.
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