Much of "Into the Wild" celebrates nature in a way that isn't far off from the pat reverence of old Sunday-evening nature shows: We get shots of snow-dotted Alaskan vistas, of majestic, cracked desert landscapes. But it takes Penn too long to tease the really interesting (and somewhat dark) observations out of McCandless' story. And Penn is perceptive enough to see that the act of "finding oneself" isn't necessarily just a groovy, harmless quest it can also be a profoundly manipulative act, a way of cutting deeply into the people who love you most. The story Penn has made from Krakauer's book is sometimes absorbing and occasionally quite touching. (Krakauer ceded his book's film rights to McCandless' parents, and Penn waited years for them to agree to let him make the movie.) That's a sad story no matter how you look at it, especially for his surviving parents. McCandless set out to find himself by traveling and living off the land his inexperience and naiveté eventually led to his death. As far as his family was concerned, he disappeared: His parents had no idea where he'd gone, and they never again saw him alive. Repulsed by his parents' materialism and seeking some greater truth, McCandless took off on a road trip after graduating from Emory University in 1992. Sean Penn's "Into the Wild" is adapted from Jon Krakauer's bestseller of the same name, detailing McCandless' strange and sad journey, one that began with his upbringing in an affluent, if troubled, Atlanta family and ended with his death from starvation in an abandoned bus somewhere in the Alaskan wilderness. For everything else, there's MasterCard, and thank God for that. In an admirable display of American self-sufficiency, Chris has shot, skinned and roasted the critter himself, proving there are some things money can't buy. The next he's in a remote corner of Alaska gnawing on a reddish, stiffened squirrel shape, its legs splayed in an approximation of a plea for mercy. In "Into the Wild," one minute disillusioned rich kid Christopher McCandless - played by a sullen Emile Hirsch - is scoffing at his parents' offer of a new car as a graduation present.
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