We Are Movie Geeks

She is a tiny little woman, a girl really, her eyes big and scared, she chews nervously on her sleeves, she looks at everyone with suspicion and maybe a bit of hope. She wears way too much eye makeup and her nail polish is always chipped and fading. She looks lost and alone in a waiting area of what may be a train station, airport or bus station. It is a waiting area for a ferry to Juneau, Alaska.

Her Mother is ill and Father deceased. Mother will be entering a hospital in Seattle, Washington, where they live, Mother can’t take care of her anymore. She is being sent to Juneau to stay with an Uncle, (known only as Uncle, played by Brian Geraghty). This is MacKenzie, the fragile but resourceful heroine of WILDLIKE.

At first her Uncle seems to have been sent from Heaven.  She gets her own room in a nice home, a brand new phone, she gets to visit where Uncle works and seems to have dreams for a future of her own with maybe a job, boyfriend, a home.  She is only 14.

And, as it must, reality comes crashing in.  Uncle comes into her bed, several times.  Later he will blame her for what occurs, naturally.  She takes all the cash she can from Uncle and at the first opportunity runs off, leading to an adventure where we hope that she will not end up victimized further or worse.

She sleeps in unlocked cars, tries to scam backpackers staying in a nice hotel she cannot afford.  She learns to use her own emerging womanhood to get what she needs.

Her goal is to get back to Seattle,  she stumbles, more or less by chance into the company of Rene Bartlett (Bruce Greenwood) another back packer.  His goal is to hike the trail through the Denali (used to be McKinley) National forest.  The last thing he wants is an inexperienced, unprepared teenage tag along, but that is exactly what he gets.

As they must MacKenzie and Bartlett hike the trail together and learn much about each other and themselves.  MacKenzie hit it lucky when she attached herself to Bartlett.  He is a good and decent man and does the right thing.  He even goes to Juneau and confronts Uncle, after he discovers what transpired, and does not do what we expect.

This is not a typical Hollywood movie with explosive behavior and dialog.  This is the kind of character and story driven project that has a hard time getting into multiplex theaters, where the blockbuster mentality rules what gets exhibited.

All the actors are excellent but the movie belongs to Ella Purnell, who showed such promise in The Intruders and Kick Ass 2 and Maleficent.  Here is a young actress rapidly coming into her own.  Bruce Greenwood is also simply astonishing.  A familiar presence from the Star Trek films he makes a good and decent man, (a type we don’t see much in movies anymore) into a  believable and interesting character.

The Alaskan wilderness is a character unto itself.  Movies seem to come in cycles, WILDLIKE is coming at the end of a cycle of films like Into The Wild, The Way, Wild and A Walk in the Woods where characters are isolated in wilderness settings, often taking a long hike on a well traveled path, and in the process learning about themselves.

WILDLIKE is a masterpiece of that type of story, we come to care very deeply about MacKenzie, and Bartlett, and hopefully something about ourselves in the process.

Five out of five stars