‘They f**k you up your mum and Dad, they may not mean to but they do’ This is the first line of a Philip Larkin poem and relates very well to the film ‘Into the Wild’. It is the touching story of a young man who decides to give up his promising socialite future and escape from his upbringing, after graduating university, for a life on the road as a vagabond traveler.

This is another film I have seen recently that has stunning cinematography. In fact, it is the cinematography, which held my attention all the way through because at times the complexities of the how the film is put together to convey the story of what shapes Christopher McCandless’s (Emile Hirsch) life could have stopped it in its tracks with less intelligent editing. It is actually a tribute to the director, Sean Penn, who is one of the most thought provoking actors I have seen and has also shown he is the same as a director. I am now haunted by breathtaking images of the American wilderness: scenes of the scorched parched desert cut to the sterile beauty of the Alaskan mountains as if we are flicking through a family album. It is difficult to keep up with the jumps between the past and present of McCandless’s life, especially, as much use is made of split-screen filming.

The story itself is one of subtle tragic irony. McCandless, aka Alex Supertramp is a vulnerable, clever and gentle dreamer who turns his back on humanity to seek happiness in the romantic images of nature he has glimpsed from books. The romance of nature quickly turns into the harsh, unsympathetic reality that it is. Instead of putting his talents and intelligence to good use, for example, by volunteering in Africa, he rebels against the pressures of his middle class upbringing by running away from his family and responsibility. The film does not turn McCandless into a heroic figure but slowly reveals him as someone who is on a painful mission to find himself and, thus, one who loses his way in the process. He becomes blinded by his pain when what he really seeks is with those people he meets on his journey. At the same time, it details the destruction his self-absorbed actions cause his family who are left behind to suffer his loss.

This is a lengthy, artistic film and requires endurance but it pays off in the end because of its sheer emotive content. It has more in common with European cinema rather than the fast and furious tendencies of American mainstream movies to shock or disturb. Prepare to be truly stirred from your own depths rather than shaken by this one.