If you’re a solo hiker, you’ve probably had the strange “walking meditation” experience of taking a back seat as your mind pulls up old memories, works on problems, or cycles through your entire iTunes library. There is a bit of product in the film – along with the Snapple, REI’s customer service is a prominent Trail Angel and Portland’s Danner even revived production on Cheryl’s Mountain Light Cascade boots for the film – but the producers assured us they were all for authenticity and none of the companies paid for placement (at one point, Strayed herself insisted they re-record dialogue so her character would specifically order a Snapple lemonade).Ī film tackling a story that’s mostly about one woman’s internal monologue while hiking has more than its fair share of storytelling hurdles to clear – but Wild rises to the challenge beautifully.

You’ll also probably identify with Cheryl’s obsession with Snapple lemonades along the way – we all have that Dream Meal that floats around in our heads as we’re hiking back to the car. Her attempts to strap on a 60+ pound pack in her motel room are both very entertaining and very familiar to anyone who can remember the first time they went on a backpacking trip (and yes, the backpack really was heavy – Witherspoon said director Jean-Marc Vallée insisted on making her haul the full pack weight herself). Strayed starts her hike in the Mojave, unprepared, untrained, and woefully overpacked. You’ll also have a lot of “Oh, I’ve been there” moments. Desert landscapes are wide and epic while Oregon’s moss and pine-flanked trails peer beautifully through foggy mist. This is not to say that hikers won’t enjoy the scenery.

Most of the first part of the film is spent in what many hikers consider the least beautiful and most boring section of the trail, although the vistas do pick up a bit once she reaches Northern California and Oregon.

If you go into this movie expecting hiker antics and nature-porn scenery, you’re likely to be disappointed (Strayed hiked solo and had to skip most of the picturesque Sierra Nevada due to an unusually robust snowfall). For those who don’t know, Wild is less a story about nature or hiking or even the Pacific Crest Trail itself than it is a memoir of loss, addiction, escape, and searching.

Wild reese witherspoon book