The big trip - wild

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Movie
German title The big trip - wild
Original title Wild
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2014
length 115 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
JMK 12
Rod
Director Jean-Marc Vallée
script Nick Hornby
production Bruna Papandrea ,
Bill Pohlad ,
Reese Witherspoon
music Susan Jacobs
camera Yves Bélanger
cut Martin Pensa ,
John Mac McMurphy
occupation

The Big Trip - Wild is an American film by the director Jean-Marc Vallée , which tells the story of a young woman during her long-distance hike on the Pacific Crest Trail in the western United States. The film is based on the experiences of the American Cheryl Strayed , which she wrote down to myself in her book The Great Trip: A Thousand Miles through the Wilderness . In the film she is played by Reese Witherspoon .

The Big Trip - Wild was first shown on August 29, 2014 at the Telluride Film Festival in Colorado . It was shown in North American cinemas from December 5, 2014, and in German cinemas from January 15, 2015.

action

After several strokes of fate in her life, including the death of her mother Bobbi, heroin consumption, an indiscriminate sex life and the divorce from her husband Paul, the 26-year-old Cheryl decides to start a new phase in life.

To do this, inspired by a travel guide found by chance in an outdoor shop, she wants to follow the Pacific Crest Trail alone and without prior knowledge , a long-distance hiking trail leading through the wilderness of California , Oregon and Washington . On this 1,600-kilometer hike, she meets different people, has to defy the forces of nature and cope with the rigors of the hike. Above all, in dealing with herself she has to order her previous life and find a positive structure.

The film begins during the hike and gradually incorporates Cheryl's past through flashbacks: the close relationship with the single mother, the childhood in material poverty with a violent father, the common steps towards social advancement. The flashbacks are only brief fragments of thought at first, it is only in the course of the film that Cheryl can fully engage with her past and find connections. These lead to a transfigured image of mother Bobbi, who in Cheryl's memory sings and dances, spreads kitschy wisdom and generously holds the small family together. When Bobbi and her daughter enroll at college and, thanks to their life experience and energy, only write top grades, their journey through their mother's cancer death ends shortly afterwards. Cheryl's life collapses.

She can keep her ex-husband as a friend, they celebrate the divorce with a joint tattoo and he supports her on the hike with packages with agreed content that await her at important waypoints.

Cheryl is dragging herself through the desert with a backpack that is much too big and too heavy, full of useless equipment, but without fuel for her stove. She meets people from whom she gets help and those who seem threatening. Various other hikers are occasionally conversationalists after long days alone. Because of an unusually large amount of snow, she has to take the bus for part of the route, but then dares to venture back into the snowy chain of hills, which slowly turn into primeval forests on the way north. The film ends on the Columbia River , the border between Oregon and Washington. Arrived at the Bridge of the Gods , she seems to have found harmony with herself, her past and the world. In the final scene she speaks the last words from the book that served as the basis for the film; this gives an outlook on her future, apparently fulfilled life.

background

The film is almost entirely about Cheryl's person. The surrounding nature hardly plays a role. Other people on the hike only appear in short scenes. As a mythical companion, a red fox appears several times at physically and spiritually important points.

The atmosphere of the film is shaped by the music. Major contributions come from the 1970s and 1980s by Simon & Garfunkel or the Pat Metheny Group . More recent songs come from Lucinda Williams or Portishead . El cóndor pasa by Simon & Garfunkel serves as a leitmotif and is played several times until it goes beyond the characteristic bars for the first time at the end of the credits.

production

Reese Witherspoon secured the film rights to Cheryl Strayed's book with the aim of both producing the film and starring it. At the same time, Witherspoon acquired the rights to Gone Girl , where she only took over the production. She hired Nick Hornby as a screenwriter. He wanted to transfer the direct narrative style of the book, which seemed very "American" to him, into the film as precisely as possible.

For Witherspoon, the production of the film with her own money was important in order to be able to play a role outside of her previous work. A heroin user who has indiscriminate sex would not have been cast with her by any other producer, but she wanted to expand the way American cinema sees what a woman in the lead can do and not do: "I've never seen a movie like 'Wild' seen in which a woman comes out without a man, without money, without a family and without prospects, but still has a happy ending. "

For 38-year-old Witherspoon, portraying the real 26-year-old Cheryl Strayed was, according to her own account, the most exhausting thing she has ever done. As a concession to Hollywood , Witherspoon looked less harsh and dirty than Strayed did in the pictures from her hike that are shown in the credits of the film. On the other hand, Witherspoon is much smaller, so that the contrast to her oversized backpack is even clearer. Even so, Witherspoon looked just as dirty and exhausted on set as any other long-distance hiker. Director Jean-Marc Vallée let her climb hills under heavy rucksacks and she played a scene herself in which she wakes up from sleep covered over and over with tree frogs.

The film was shot in the Sonoran Desert in southern California and northern Oregon. These regions represent all parts of the three-month hike. For this purpose, Joshua Trees were transported from the neighboring Mojave Desert to the Sonoran Desert and the area around Mount Hood was selected because it was possible to shoot mountains and forests that cover all landforms from northern California to the Columbia River.

Awards and nominations

source rating
Rotten tomatoes
critic
audience
Metacritic
critic
audience
IMDb

AACTA International Award

  • Nomination for Best Actress for Reese Witherspoon

Critics' Choice Movie Award

  • Nomination for Best Actress for Reese Witherspoon
  • Nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay for Nick Hornby

Golden Globe Award

Oscar

San Francisco Film Critics Circle Award

  • Nomination for Best Actress for Reese Witherspoon
  • Nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay for Nick Hornby

Satellite Award

  • Nomination for Best Actress for Reese Witherspoon
  • Nomination in the category Best Supporting Actress for Laura Dern
  • Nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay for Nick Hornby

Screen Actors Guild Award

Washington DC Area Film Critics Association Award

  • Nomination for Best Actress for Reese Witherspoon
  • Nomination in the category Best Supporting Actress for Laura Dern
  • Nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay for Nick Hornby

Writers Guild of America Award

  • Nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay for Nick Hornby

The German Film and Media Assessment FBW in Wiesbaden awarded the film the rating particularly valuable.

Reviews

"At its heart" The Big Trip "is the story of a woman who is at odds with the past and with herself. [...] Similar to Matthew McConaughey's main character in Jean-Marc Vallée's previous film " Dallas Buyers Club ", Cheryl also has a lot of rough edges, her weaknesses are brought to the fore in a ruthless but sensitive manner. [...] Oscar-winner Witherspoon (...) allows a mixture of suppressed anger and insecurity to be felt behind the facade of harshness and selfishness; despite all the quirks, she makes Cheryl a fascinating and always accessible figure. And the best thing about it is that she doesn't have to learn flat lessons, but can stay complicated until the end - despite the somewhat flat (and not very feminist) promise of happiness at the finale. "

- Andreas Staben: film starts

“The fact that Wild didn't turn out to be a big hit is due to the straightforward and predictable dramaturgy of classic cleansing stories. The more cinematic fall height is more likely due to the tragic prehistory. [...] Despite all the flashes back and forth, despite pleasantly porous and aesthetically dimmed sex scenes, despite one of Witherspoon's credibly amateurish, puffing wanderers, Wild disintegrates early into its narrative individual parts. "

- Birgit Glombitza: epd film

"The drama of self-discovery, based on a real experience report, does not completely dispense with the structures of a classic redemption story, but convinces thanks to its sober, yet humorous staging."

- Film service

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Release certificate for The Great Trip - Wild . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , November 2014 (PDF; test number: 148 640 K).
  2. Age rating for The Great Trip - Wild . Youth Media Commission .
  3. Info on filmstarts.de , accessed on December 6, 2014
  4. David Edelstein: Reese Witherspoon Takes a 1,100-Mile Hike in the Remarkably Fluid Wild , Vulture, December 19, 2014
  5. David Sims: Wild: A Deeper, Smarter Sob Story , December 5, 2014
  6. soundtrack-movie.com: Wild
  7. Roger Ebert: Wild Movie Review & Film Summary (2014)
  8. The Atlantic: How Nick Hornby Keeps His Writing Fresh , Jan. 30, 2015
  9. a b Vulture: How Getting Wild Saved a 'Lost' Reese Witherspoon , August 27, 2014
  10. a b Outside: Behind the Scenes of 'Wild' , November 7, 2014
  11. a b The Big Trip - Wild at Rotten Tomatoes , accessed on March 2, 2015
  12. a b The big trip - Wild at Metacritic , accessed on March 2, 2015
  13. The big trip - Wild in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  14. 2014 SAN FRANCISCO FILM CRITICS AWARDS: Full List of Nominees . In: SanFranciscoFilmCriticsCircle.org . December 24, 2014. Retrieved January 25, 2015.
  15. Satellite Awards 2014 . In: PressAcademy.com . Retrieved December 4, 2014.
  16. Patrick Hipes: Writers Guild Awards Nominations: 'Whiplash', 'Gone Girl', 'Guardians' On Diverse List . In: Deadline.com . January 7, 2015. Retrieved January 25, 2015.
  17. Andreas Staben: Review of The Great Trip - Wild. Retrieved April 23, 2015 .
  18. Birgit Glombitza: Review of The Great Trip - Wild. December 12, 2014, accessed April 23, 2015 .
  19. Review of The Big Trip - Wild. Retrieved April 23, 2015 .