Into The Wild

Into the Wild, starring an outstanding Emile Hirsch, is one of the best films of the year. Sean Penn directs a magnificent true story about a young man who gives up his normal life to go on a cross country journey to Alaska and be one with the wild. With hardly any money, "Alexander Supertramp" travels across the USA and even Mexico and encounters adventures along the way. Through either nature, people or places, he has found the freedom he has always desired but he also learns the price that comes with it. The people he befriends are all charmed by his wonderful spirit, but they all see something he does not, that happiness is meaningless if not shared. As the character roams, he is stunned by simple beauties and repulsed with his past and the normal lives everyone else accepts. But as he is happy with life on the road and in the wild, he is oblivious to the pain he has caused to his parents he left behind, although it becomes apparent they are the main reason for his departure. But he also hurts his abandoned sister, the only person he really trusted. At one point he claims that happiness does not come from human relationships. I suppose we are to believe that in his mind, it comes from your relationship with nature. However, it may be too late when he realizes it's both. A beautiful film from beginning to end. Into the Wild is one of the few unforgettable movies of the year.