Christopher McCandless is a character so fantastic he'd almost have to be a figment of one's imagination. Surprisingly, Sean Penn, director of "Into the Wild," didn't dream him up.
In August 1992, moose hunters in Alaska found Chris McCandless' lifeless body zipped inside a sleeping bag in an abandoned bus in the middle of the wilderness. When his family was notified, it was the first they had heard of their son since he graduated from Emory University two years earlier. He had given away most of his $24,000 savings, burned the rest of the cash along with his social security card, and taken off for destinations unknown in his beat-up yellow Datsun.
Chris' real-life story garnered publicity when Jon Krakauer published his story in book form in 1996. Krakauer's book, "Into the Wild," is a brilliant investigation of Chris' journey, often expressed through excerpts from the young man's personal journal entries, literary quotes and first-hand accounts from the people Chris met along his epic trek.
As such, it's easy to be apprehensive about what a film adaptation might look like. "Into the Wild," however, is just as compelling on the screen as it is on paper.
Penn uses time, and specifically the rearrangement of it, to deal with the format of the book and to explore Chris' (played by Emile Hirsch) character development. The movie is a series of vignettes alternating between Chris' various adventures on the road and scenes from his final destination, the bus in Alaska.
The times on the road precede the Alaskan bit by up to two years, but Penn's disregard for chronology works to his advantage. In each scene on the road, Chris meets colorful characters. He forms significant, though fleeting relationships that function as the heart of the film.
In each quick exchange, Chris imbues his new companions with the kind of worldly insight he himself would have done well to listen to. Jan (Catherine Keener) and Rainey (Brian Dierker) make up a rubber-tramping hippie couple, drifting further and further apart in the throes of a relationship crisis. Chris' honesty and simplistic nature help them grow closer together.
Ron Franz, played artfully by the acting legend Hal Holbrook, is an aged recluse plagued by the guilt of losing his family and has perhaps the most poignant scenes with Chris. They can relate to each other on so many levels, namely in their lack of family and their lifestyles on the fringes of society.
Hirsch plays Chris with tangible sincerity, especially as he tells Ron not to give up on life and to go explore and feel and truly experience everything it has to offer. Hirsch's performance, in this and just about every scene, is at once effortless and exhaustingly intense. He is obviously both physically and emotionally committed to the role. With every appearance of his on screen, the viewer is left breathless, trying to keep up with his physical undertakings and philosophical ruminations.
To portray Chris as a starved man, Hirsch lost 41 pounds, dropping to the 115 pounds the real McCandless is supposed to have weighed. Those final scenes are shocking and decidedly difficult to watch. Equally hard to handle are the revelations about Chris' unfortunate childhood. The sad backstory provides grounds for Chris' quest for happiness, and above all, truth.
Hirsch downplays Chris' deeply philosophical nature, instead letting it reveal itself indirectly in the steady gaze of his eyes and the earnest tone with which he doles out snippets of advice. This tactic makes for a likeable character, instead of an abrasive, self-righteous one.
McCandless' story is simultaneously tragic and uplifting. Penn recognizes this and deftly handles the delicate balance between the two. Throughout the film, he pairs scenes that are rich with interpersonal relationships with those that are raw and gritty, reflecting the solitude of the Alaskan wilderness.
As Chris passes on wisdom to others, he's shown physically starving himself, emptying himself of everything until he's left with nothing. His quest, however, did not go unfulfilled.
In the pages of his journal, the ultimate revelation is found, and it echoes through every shot of the film: "Happiness is only real when shared."
