Wild: Reese Witherspoon gets around

If you're interested in the world of movies based on books, it's hard not to bump up against Reese Witherspoon's name right about now. The actor, whose name was once tossed around as a top contender to play Amy in Gone Girl is still one of the producers of the film due out this Friday. She's also making her on-screen reunion with her Walk the Line costar Joaquin Phoenix as Penny in the upcoming adaptation of Inherent Vice, making its film festival debut on October 3rd as well. But most exciting of all, Witherspoon is Cheryl Strayed in WILD, the movie based on the real life adventures of the woman who hiked over 1000 miles of the west coast's Pacific Coast Trail solo. Alone. All by herself.

Even though Strayed casts a bigger, more powerful shadow than Reese Witherspoon's tiny 5'1" frame, I'm in awe of the woman who had the balls to do such a scary and potentially dangerous thing. Not that I recommend that the average single female to go out and trek the trek but I imagine a ton of you young women have been inspired to do so, hopefully with a friend along! I've just finished her powerful memoir, (I'll get my thoughts together on the book shortly); right now I'm pumped to see the film which comes out December 5th. People who've seen it - the movie premiered at Telluride and continues to screen at festivals around North America - are mostly praising the film. This review by Justin Chang at Variety though has seriously ticked me off. Anyone who has read Strayed's memoir knows that the author slept with a lot of men, maybe too many men as she spiraled down in her grief, and doing so while married, she was clearly an adulteress but Chang actually calls her a 'nymphomaniac'. A nymphomaniac? That seems skewed. Would the critic have used the male form of that word - is there even a male form of that word? - if Strayed had been a man? 

Aaaargh! Anyway, scroll down and let's take a look at the trailer together.

  “Cheryl has this idea that the things that have happened to you are part of you. There’s something really beautiful about that idea.” Reese Witherspoon on playing Strayed