Respond to these rapid questions in our Wild quiz and we will tell you which Wild character you are. Play it now.
“Wild” begins with novice hiker Cheryl Strayed at one of the lowest points during her three-month, 1,100-mile-long solo trek along the Pacific Crest Trail. Her journey is described as “wild.” She examines her bled feet with extreme caution before getting ready to remove a shattered nail from her big toe. She lets out a primal scream of agony as she pulls on it, which causes one of her boots to fall off a precarious ledge while she is doing so. In a fit of pique, she hurls its companion down the slope alongside it, all the while yelling a string of colorful expletives for good measure.
This lone traveler’s absence of appropriate footwear, combined with the fact that they are out in the wilderness by themselves, ought to properly fill us with concern. Despite this, I was confident that she would be okay. Why? Because Reese Witherspoon, an actress with enough high-octane spunk to fuel an entire cheerleading squad as well as the football team, is playing her role in the movie.
Witherspoon has always been skilled at portraying characters with extreme personalities who, despite the challenges they face, find a way to succeed despite the obstacles that stand in their way. She is an expert at personifying perky pillars of strength who are just a little bit scary, whether it be the underestimated smarts of Elle Woods in “Legally Blonde” or the unstoppable ambition of Tracy Flick in “Election.”
She is not only a survivor on screen, but in real life as well. After she was awarded the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as country music icon June Carter Cash in the film “Walk the Line” from 2005, her career took a dive that was on par with Strayed’s wayward boot. It is anyone’s guess how she ended up in movies like “Four Christmases,” which managed to collect a domestic gross of $120 million, and “How Do You Know,” which was an absolute turkey directed by the once-great James L. Brooks. My contention is that male-dominated, mainstream Hollywood rarely feels the need to feature women over the age of 30 as the primary focus of a film, regardless of whether or not the film is nominated for an Academy Award.
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However, Witherspoon has recently taken the initiative to take control of the situation by securing film projects for herself. She made a determined effort to acquire the rights to “Gone Girl.” As a result of director David Fincher’s decision to cast Rosamund Pike instead of her, she was only given a credit for producing the film instead of also starring in it. This was very unfortunate for her. Personally, I would have been very interested in seeing her take on the con artist commonly known as Amazing Amy.
However, there was no way that she was going to give up the lead role in “Wild,” which is based on the best-selling memoir written by Cheryl Strayed in 2012 and is reminiscent of other films that feature self-inflicted tests of endurance such as “Eat Pray Love,” “127 Hours,” and “Into the Wild.” And despite the fact that Witherspoon uses all of her skills and then some in order to portray this broken person who is making progress toward recovery, I just could not buy her completely in this role.
Wild Quiz
She is fine, however, when comically lugging an unwieldy backpack and steadfastly sticking to her walking tour that begins in the Mojave Desert and ends at the Cascades. Her antics make for great entertainment. Along the way, there are plenty of encounters, both welcome and unwelcome, including a rattlesnake, a fox that is curious about what is going on, men who are predatory, and random people who are surprisingly kind. She deals with sweltering heat and unseasonable snow by shivering, cursing, and muttering her way through it. She eats freeze-dried meals to prevent herself from becoming dehydrated and deals with the effects of dehydration while she builds up quite a stench in the time between rest stops.
Also, you will find out which character are you in this Wild quiz.
Now, I seriously doubt that Reese Witherspoon could ever stink to that extreme. Don’t you know that ladies from the South admire her glow? She may be 38, but she appears to be ready for her high school gym class dressed in her hiking shorts and T-shirt, so it is not difficult for her to play the role of a 26-year-old. In point of fact, she hasn’t been so emotionally open and unguarded onscreen since her captivating film debut in 1991’s “The Man in the Moon,” in which she played a young teen falling in love for the first time. Witherspoon is mostly served well by director Jean-Marc Vallee, who, in the film “Dallas Buyers Club” from the previous year, was responsible for bringing out the best in both Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto.
Concerning the threats to her life, the majority of them take place inside her head as fragments of forgotten experiences develop into full-fledged flashback sequences. These flashbacks to the past, in which we see Strayed lose her footing after her beloved mother passes away at the age of 45 from a particularly aggressive form of cancer, didn’t convince me as much as the rest of the story did. (Although Laura Dern is only nine years older than Reese Witherspoon, she manages to be quite fabulous as Bobbi, a human sunbeam who radiates unconditional love for her children after leaving behind an abusive marriage.)
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Strayed, who is struggling under the weight of her loss, destroys her marriage to a kind and loving man by engaging in risky sexual behavior with strangers. She also develops an addiction to heroin during this time. Witherspoon tries very hard to convince us that her life has taken a downward turn, going so far as to perform her first-ever nude scenes. But despite the fact that her hair is always greasy and her eyes always look lifeless, I just can’t buy her as a self-destructive junkie.
Also, you must try to play this Wild quiz.
Thankfully, “Wild” is only slightly hampered by this disconnect throughout its entirety. It is interesting enough that the reader will want to accompany Strayed on her journey, which she will dedicate to Bobbi. “I’m going to walk myself back to the woman my mother thought I was,” was the statement that served as her mission statement. Her literary-inspired scribbles that she left behind at various signposts were entertaining, and one of my favorites was a quotation from Emily Dickinson that read, “If your nerve deny you, go above your nerve.” There are a few songs on the soundtrack that are instantly recognizable, such as “El Condor Pasa” and “Homeward Bound” by Simon & Garfunkel. However, these songs are broken up with excerpts from Lucinda Williams, Portishead, and even some Grateful Dead songs that are highly appropriate.
After being moved to tears by an unanticipatedly beautiful moment that was provided by a young boy who was strolling the trail with his grandmother while he serenaded her, I ultimately decided to forgive most of the hints that the roles had been cast incorrectly. Strayed by performing an emotionally devastating cover of “Red River Valley.” Even when it stumbles occasionally, “Wild” is able to get back on track with a reasonable amount of ease.
For more personality quizzes check this: Shaun The Sheep Movie Quiz.
