WILD (2014)

Rated:  R

STARS: Reese Witherspoon, Laura Dern, Thomas Sadoski
DIRECTOR: Jean-Marc Vallee
GENRE: Drama

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to sit through the first couple minutes of Wild with your eyes closed and listen to the noises wayfaring Cheryl Strayed (Reese Witherspoon) emits. You may think you've wandered into a porno by mistake. Then open your peepers to discover that the caterwaulings of a young woman losing a toenail out in the wilderness because her hiking boots are too small can have a remarkably similar ring to that of someone in the throes of ecstasy. A darkly comic moment in a film about some serious business. The business of life and its winding trails.and travails.  

Strayed is on an eleven hundred mile odyssey from the Mojave desert to the Oregon-Washington border--hiking alone, for the most part, along the Pacific Crest Trail. She's got a backpack that's as big as she is, and nearly as heavy. She struggles to raise herself off the floor and stand upright with it on. (Another richly comic moment.) On day one, she's already telling herself it's okay to quit. But she's got something to prove. To herself. The cumbersome pack is symbolic of the baggage she's carrying.  She's just lost her mother (Laura Dern) to a devastating illness, and her husband (Thomas Sadoski)  to divorce. She's been recklessly engaging in drug use and promiscuous sex. So her journey is one of getting in touch with the real person inside. The person her mother thought she was, or could be. The movie sticks pretty close to Cheryl Strayed's best-selling memoir, which adds to its jaw-dropping effect when you consider that this stuff really happened.   

Along the way, Strayed encounters men in various shapes and sizes who may, to varying degrees, pose potential threats to her security. Even in nature, it's  human nature that always seems to come into play. And we learn a lot about that in Wild. As in what the human spirit is capable of when pushed to its limits. Witherspoon probably didn't hike any further than necessary to complete her scenes, but she did push herself beyond her normal boundaries in terms of amount of skin bared and hot sexy scenes--in the alley no less! 

 I always admire someone who is willing to lay it all on the line for the sake of their art. 

Grade:  B +

JILL'S TAKE

I find Cheryl Strayed's last name particularly appropriate as she definitely strayed from her intended hiking trail on numerous occasions. And since I'm in a punny mood, I also find one of Reese Witherspoon's other movies (Walk The Line) also ironic. But as far as Wild goes? The story is impressive and Canadian director Jean-Marc Vallée (Dallas Buyers Club) keeps it moving with flashbacks from Strayed's dark past and incredible scenery.  Still, the film proves to me—once again—why I hate camping. Too damn  much packing and unpacking. Over and over again.

Small as her part was, I do think Laura Dern turned in another masterful performance. (Clearly talent runs big in that family!) If by some miracle, she wins this year's Best Actress in a Supporting Role award, it would make a nice touch if her dad, Bruce Dern, nominated last year for Best Actor in Nebraska,presented her with the much-coveted statuette.

Sometimes my ratings are too lenient but this time, probably due to the subject matter, I'm going to be less kind. Frankly, I'd rather watch a Nat Geo Special than sit through nearly two hours of Reese Witherspoon without make-up. Seems to be the thing this year for actresses to expose their un-pancaked faces – Jennifer Aniston in Cake, Julianne Moore in Alice. I prefer 'em beautified.

Grade: C

MUD (2013)

Rated: PG-13

Stars: Matthew McConaughey,  Tye Sheridan, Reese Witherspoon, Jacob Lofland, Ray Mckinnon, Sam Shepard, Sarah Paulson

Director: Jeff Nichols

Genre:  Drama

Mud has a little bit of everything--mystery , suspense, romance, rednecks, rootin' tootin' shoot 'em up action,  angst, rednecks, young love, and... uh...rednecks. The cast--many of them with southern roots, including  Matthew McConaughey and Reese Witherspoon--are convincingly  "redneckish."

McConaughey is the  loose cannon known as "Mud," whom we find  hanging out on this small island in the Mississippi river. He is discovered there by two adventurous 14 year-old  boys:  Ellis, (Tye Sheridan)  and Neckbone (Jacob Lofland).  Mud has dirt on him throughout most of the movie--especially on his hands--but he doesn't care, and he eats beans from a can with his fingers. (It's never really explained why his name is Mud, but that's what everybody who knows him calls him too. When you're covered with dirt, I guess that's what you get when it rains). Mud  is trying to avoid an unpleasant encounter with the law and a gang of bounty hunters who are on his tail for the killing of a man who was mean to his one and only love, Juniper (Reese Witherspoon).

Witherspoon calls upon her Tennessee roots to channel a simple kind of gal in blue jean cutoffs who is waiting in town to hook up with Mud again when the moment is right. Unfortunately, she gets distracted by other men during her vigil, and it gets back to her longtime lover. Part of what Mud is about is the emotional rolllercoaster Mud and Juniper are riding with one another. But it's just as much a coming of age story about the two boys--particularly Ellis--who goes around trying to punch out people who are bigger than him, (in some instances successful, in some not) mostly when he sees a girl being mistreated. In that sense, he is a chip off the old block for Mud, and maybe that's why he takes a shine to the fugitive and believes in his innate goodness. Ellis is more than willing to do the mud man's bidding, which is primarily to act as emissary between Mud and Juniper.    

We're supposed to root for Mud, because he has shown his tender side with his love for and devotion to Juniper. But he has gotten himself into quite a jam...or pickle...or any other food metaphor you want to use, and how he's going to extricate himself won't be determined until Tom, his surrogate father figure from the past, (Sam Shepard) weighs in. Tom is a former sharpshooter with the Marines, and he will have something to say about the outcome before it's all said and done. 

Mud, which starts off  kinda slow, keeps building like a bonfire where more and more kindling is being heaped onto it--and some A-hole has tossed some cherry bombs in there too--leading to an explosive climax that will give action fans plenty of what they want.  

There are numerous subplots--including  Ellis's infatuation with an older girl, which is going to teach him something about women; and the sad state of affairs surrounding Ellis's parents, (Ray McKinnon & Sarah Paulson) who are breaking up, and are too distracted to do much parenting, though his father tries in his  ineffectual way. While McConaughey's performance here is being touted as Oscar worthy, not much due is being given to McKinnon's sensitive and multi-layered portrayal of a man whose world is slowly crumbling around him. It should be noted. He is the true tragic figure in this film.

Ultimately, Mud is pretty unrealistic, but most movies are. The fine performances here overshadow that little detail. Tye Sheridan, as Ellis, gets to show his emotional range, and he is going to turn into a fine actor. With Lofland, we can't really tell, because not much is required of him other than a sidekick's monosyllabic responses here and there. But I swear by looking at these two kids that they were both in Stand By Me--but then, they would be a little long in the tooth for that by now.

Grade:  B + 

WATER FOR ELEPHANTS--2011

Rated: PG-13

Stars: Robert Pattinson, Reese Witherspoon, Christopher Waltz, Hal Holbrook

Director: Francis Lawrence

Genre: Drama

The stage is set for high melodrama in the film adaptation of Sara Gruen's bestselling novel, Water For Elephants.

Told in flashback mode, a ninety-something guy named Jacob (Hal Holbrook) relates the story of his youthful exploits in the circus back in the Great Depression of the 1930s. The young Jacob (Robert Pattinson) is one exam away from graduating from veterinary school, when a family tragedy sets his life off-kilter and alters his destiny. He hooks up with a marginally run circus and learns to roll with the punches (literally) of life under the big top.

A little fudging of the truth gets him hired on as the outfit's veterinarian, by the (as we will see) amoral and sadistic ringmaster, August (Christopher Waltz). August treats his animals and his wife, Marlena, (Reese Witherspoon) with the same heavy hand. The Harlow-esque Marlena is steamy, and just low-brow enough to have been attracted to someone like August in the first place. But she has compassion for the animals, and a forbidden attraction between her and Jacob begins to develop.

Enter Rosie--a highly trained elephant who may be the most talented performer of this entire cast. August needs a new starring act to keep his near-failing operation going, and Rosie fills the bill in playful and adorable fashion. But August's methods of keeping Rosie in line are abusive, and hard to watch (even though we know the animal's not really being beaten for the movie--and I sat through all of the credits at the end just to see the statement that the animal action was monitored by the American Humane Association, and no animals were harmed during filming). What ensues is a roaringly dramatic climax to Water For Elephants that was easy to see coming, but that made it no less satisfying when it arrived. We can think of it as "poetic justice."

There is an amazing scene of chaos near the end where animals and people are stampeding every which way--an astonishing bit of choreography--and I'm still in awe of how they pulled it off!

Christopher Waltz (Inglourious Basterds) brings some depth to the character of August, to the point of where we can ALMOST dredge up some sympathy for the poor deranged bastard (spelled the correct way!)

Reese Witherspoon, who has that naturally wholesome looking face, shows us another side with her somewhat jaded, been-around-the-block Marlena.

The Most Wholesome award here goes to Pattinson, convincing enough as the fresh-faced good guy who tries to do the right thing in some emotionally charged situations.

While Water For Elephants is set in the thirties, I think you should know that circus animals are cruelly mistreated even today, and if you're a fan of the circus, I hope you will THINK about the price these wild animals pay--not the least of which is the loss of their freedom and dignity--just for the sake of providing circus entrepreneurs a living, and to give you a couple of hours of diversionary entertainment. If you think I'm exaggerating, I can direct you to plenty of web sites that contain actual photos and explanations of what goes on. I also encourage you to support some of the cruelty-free circuses, which feature human acts only--an increasing trend as awareness of the sad truth about animal-act circuses continues to grow.

Grade: A -