Into the Wild

I watched this film on HD-DVD last night and found myself quietly drawn into a world I'll probably never know (at least in this life), a world apart from men and their things and all they subsume.

There's no disputing Sean Penn's gifts as director, writer (he wrote the screenplay) and actor, say what you will about his off-camera life, words and deeds.

Funny, the only dissonant notes were the characters played by William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden, ostensibly the two best actors in the movie, who as the oh-so-proper parents of their errant son became caricatures of the people they meant to portray.

The film's music is superb: Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder sings solo, his first such recordings ever released.

They're perfectly fitted to the great lonely spaces they accompany.