by Brian Surber

“I’d rather be a hammer than a nail…” The first lines uttered in Jean-Marc Vallee’s new film, Wild, represents not only the mindset of it’s heroine but the mindset of the film itself. Here is a film with a familiar premise (mentally damaged, almost broken person sets out Into the Wild to find one’s self), familiar motifs (flashbacks revealing the back story throughout the film), and the grand Brava performance by its lead actor who shares the screen with barely anyone else (Emile Hirsch, Sandra Bullock, Robert Redford). Yet Wild somehow manages to transcend these tropes, providing the audience with air just as fresh as its character breaths, and proving that it has what it takes, just like it’s heroine, to not only be the hammer but make sure that the nail never comes back up.

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