I wasted $10.75 for 2.5 hours of an episodic, begging-for-parody string of platitudes featuring a brat of a kid, Emile Hirsch (Alpha Dog, Sabrina the Teenage Witch) who probably has never, in real life, had to cook for himself.
It is possible that Sean Penn, in the making of this movie, was like Saddam Hussein, in that no one was brave enough to challenge his directorial decisions. Lots of unanswered questions (Why does Vince Vaugh, a South Dakota wheat farmer, get hauled away suddenly by the FBI?) and lots of scenes where it appeared that the only direction that Hirsch received was "Go scavange in the berries." "Be really, really hungry."
Lots of heavy-handed symbolism ("God is light," says the old man, and then the clouds part and there's a burst of blinding sunlight) and lots of spotty makeup jobs (you can see the makeup in his pores when they zoomed in on the Poisoned/Dying Face of Alexander Supertramp, nee Christopher Candless.*)
Lots of archetypes for characters (Marcia Gay Harden is the first lady-esque uptight mother; the skinny Tracy, a hippy community's own Joni Mitchell, is Supertramp's last chance for sex (and she looks perpetually wan and sex-starved), but the ascetic abstains).
I was most disappointed because, going into the movie, I confused the book, on which the movie was based, with Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen.
*Warning: Plot Spoiler.**
**Whoops too late.***
***Guess you're not going to see the movie now.****
****Good. Best to spend that $10.75 on a block and a half of cheese.
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1 comment:
yes. thank you. on a couple of counts. a) i am at work where gmail is not blocked and have ended up via mallikas blog on your blog. b) that movie a terrible. a terrible power point presentation shoving its finger in my throat. ok.
a complete stranger,
Miryam
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