Wild -nf

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We did not choose to go to see this thousand mile trek when it was in the movie theatres but we thought we would give it a try at home via Netflix. What we saw was an admirable performance by Reese Witherspoon, who occupies the screen for just about the entire 1 hour and 55 minutes as her character walks a thousand miles over the entire Pacific Crest Trail by herself from Mexico to Canada. She does this with having little experience in hiking. We see her have some brief encounters with people she meets along the way but she mainly has short flashbacks of her past. She is taking this trip to clear her head of her mother’s death and her own addiction and depression as well as her breakup with her husband because of her promiscuity. It is heart wrenching as she recalls her closeness to her mother as a child and her mother’s dying days of cancer. There is great beauty as we see the magnificent scenery through which she travels. The cinematography of this film is outstanding. It is even more amazing that this is a true story actually lived by a woman by the name of Cheryl Strayed, who wrote about her journey in a very successful book that is the source of this movie. There is no complicated plot with a resolution. “It is what it is.” You can decide if this three month journey sounds like it is worth nearly two hours of your time. (2015)

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Water for Elephants- nf  – A doddering  old man (Hal Holbrook ) arrives late and misses the last circus show visiting his town. It turns out that many years ago he had a very special relationship with a well known traveling circus and so the tale unfolds . It happened long ago in the depression era when this young man (Robert Pattinson) was just about to graduate from  Cornell Veterinary College and finds himself down on his luck . He jumps on a train heading out of town which turns out to be  traveling circus. So begins this fairy tale of  a heroic young man, a beautiful young woman of the circus (Resse Witherspoon), her husband, the all powerful animal trainer and boss man (Christoher Waltz) and an elephant named Rosie who is very smart and loveable. There is adventure, drama, suspense, humor and lots of circus music. You think you know how it is  going to turn out but you won’t quite figure it out. Getting there will be an enjoyable process with a well crafted movie directed by Francis Lawrence. (2011)

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Election – nf – We recently had a Netflix viewing of this 1999 movie which is a period piece set to take place 20-25 years earlier. It starred Reese Witherspoon as an ambitious determined high school student bound for the student council presidency and Matthew Broderick as her high school teacher who thinks he is a happy dedicated person doing just what he was meant to do. The story based on a novel by Tom Perotta with an Oscar winning screen play by the director Alexander Payne is seen mostly through the eyes of the teacher although pieces of narration are shown through the view of some of the other characters. The main plot deals with the high school election when two other students are drawn into a very contentious race with the preexisting favorite, each having their own motivation. However, in a somewhat comedic and satiric way the film shows how this teacher makes a complete mess of his life and ultimately has to try and reinvent himself. The movie was shot in the Omaha area of Nebraska near where the director grew up. A typical high school was used for most of the scenes with real students playing the extras and some parts including the male student lead who ran for president. Witherspoon and Broderick captured their characters quite well and Witherspoon actually won the Teen Choice Award for the best “hissy hit”. It was fun to watch and done well but at this point in time we can’t recommend that you put it very high in your Netflix queue, as there are much better films available out there. (1999)