There’s lots of reasons to be interested in “Wild,” Fox Searchlight’s upcoming drama starring Reese Witherspoon. For one, it could be her “127 Hours,” as it’s about a woman in the wilderness all by herself and by all accounts, like that movie, it’s mostly a one-(wo)man show. Secondly, it’s directed by Jean-Marc Vallée, the filmmaker behind “Dallas Buyers Club” who directed Matthew McConaughey to his first Best Actor Oscar award earlier this year. It’s also written by celebrated author Nick Hornby.
We already had a hunch this one could be a strong vehicle for Witherspoon and placed it on our 2014 Premature Oscar Predictions for Best Actress. And maybe there’s something to that; Searchlight just announced that the film has been dated for an Oscar-friendly December 5th release date later this year.
Here’s the official synopsis:
With the dissolution of her marriage and the death of her mother, Cheryl Strayed (Reese Witherspoon)has lost all hope. After years of reckless, destructive behavior, she makes a rash decision. With absolutely no experience, driven only by sheer determination, Cheryl hikes more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail, alone. WILD powerfully captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddens, strengthens, and ultimately heals her.
It’s unclear how much of a one-woman show this is because Laura Dern, Thomas Sadoski, Gaby Hoffmann, Kevin Rankin and Michiel Huisman co-star (but “127 Hours” had its share of small quick character cameos too). “Wild” will open in select theaters, likely followed by a rollout similar to “Dallas Buyers Club” (a movie that didn’t seem like it was on anyone’s Oscar radar in the fall and then turned around and took home three Academy statuettes in February). And check out a new photo of the film below.
Honest question: how much sex does Reese do in this movie? The book is filled with sex and the director mentioned sex a couple of times when describing the film. I'm guessing Reese lets go of her inhibitions and we see her naked for the first time in +15 years? How hard core will her sex scenes be? Will she go all the way with a Halle Berry type of scene or something tamer? I think she does, at least, a Kate Winslet style nude scene (circa Little Children).
The Good Lie, Wild and Inherent Vice – I think Witherspoon will have an extremely good year. Early reviews of Wild and IV are very positive. BTW, she did some fine job since 2005 too, for example she was great in Rendition – mostly with in co-scenes with Peter Sarsgard – and pretty cool in Mud.
Really don't care for Witherspoon, but Vallee did an excellent job on Dallas Buyers Club which could so easily have descended into bathos, dragging McConaughey and Leto's extraordinarily powerful pas-de-deux down with it. He kept the pace brisk and the camera a documentarian's distance away, just letting the beauty of the performances, the witty script shine through without overdoing things.
Witherspoon isn't an actor on the order of Leto and certainly not McConaughey, but I'll keep an open mind. Though I notice her husband is Vallee's agent (he's also McConaughey and Leto's agent) and I fear Vallee might have been coerced into trying to give Witherspoon a McConaissance of her own (ain't gonna happen).
"Dallas Buyers Club" won three Oscars, not four.
(Which is still three more than it should have won, but eh.)
So it's basically Tracks sans-camels and much more crowd-pleasing.
I see more of an Into the Wild comparison than 127 Hours. Hell, the word "wild" is in both titles.