Cheryl Strayed isn’t my hero, but I do find her journey inspiring. Her life was full of pain and struggle and she channeled that pain into a challenge from which most would shrink. Hiking the Pacific Coast Trail is challenging for experienced hikers, but she did it with no experience, which is all the more impressive. Her story was adapted into a film and Reese Witherspoon gave her heart and soul to her performance as Strayed. The film follows her life-changing hike, but the most interesting part, to me, wasn’t her journey, it is what prompted it. Some people choose to do something extraordinary because they need to know they can do it. Strayed took her life to a new low and used a lifetime of mistakes as an excuse to abandon everything she knew and seek transformation in the wild.
Inspirational, but not heavy-handed; I liked this film and find myself suddenly motivated to do something out of the ordinary.
In honor of her commitment to the role, I give this one…
3.5 out of 5
Movies 