This is a very powerful story about personal freedom, society and man’s rapport with nature. The story is adapted from a book about the real story of Chris McCandless.

The timeline jumps between Chris’s present journey and his past, starting from his graduation and the beginning of his travels. He travels all over the country and alternates between periods in the wild without much human contact, and periods in which he has relationships with random people and has jobs.

At times we also follow his family’s reaction, narrated by his sister. We only see glimpses of their life, not much dialog, just the sister narrating. We do have an understanding of what their family life was like, and though it may have been simplistic, it helped understanding Chris.

Chris meets some important people during his travels, many of them played by famous actors. Cathrerine Keener plays Jan, a sort of mother figure to Chris. Vince Vaughn plays Wayne, a mentor. Hal Holbrook as Ron was like a father to him. All these people affected his life, and he affected their lives. But in the end he continued on this journey.

I can symphathize very well with Chris’s desire to break out from society’s rules and roles (get an education, get a job, get married, get kids etc…), not that I don’t want to do those things, or that my parents are anything like his. But I can understand why he felt tied down, why he felt he couldn’t do whatever he wanted.

His parents obviously didn’t help with that, but I don’t think they were the only reason for his departure. I do think he could have contacted them somehow, just to let them know he was fine. Or at least his sister.

In a way I admire him, I am sure a lot of people (especially men) have thought about living a simple life in the wild and not being bothered by all little things in their every day life. The difference is that not a lot of people have the guts to do it, but Chris did it and he lived a full life. I am sure he’s found happiness in his travels.

I do think this movie captured his spirit and motivations, without spelling them out with his dialogs or narration. The only words he used were quotes from his favorite books. This movie also didn’t make him a hero, so it was also possible to see him as a stupid brat, if you were so inclined.

This is definitely a story worth telling, and I think writer/director Sean Penn did a good job at presenting it to us.

Rating: 4 Stars