One of the most touching movies I've ever seen. Beautiful, deep, true, adventurous, sad, occasionally funny, real. Based on a real-life novel, it is written and directed by Sean Penn.

After graduating from Emory University, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandons his property, gives his entire $24,000 savings account to charity and hikes to Alaska to live in the wilderness. Along the way, Christopher encounters a series of characters that shape his life.

Off on the road, he makes a number of foolish choices – and suffers from some of them. Other foolish choices, such as daring to kayak a rapid river, bring him joy. He meets a lot of people and almost all are kind to him. His interactions with people are intense, the kind you have when you are planning to run off and disappear while you are still a mysterious entity. He avoids getting too close to anyone.

The movie is gorgeous, mountains, plains, sky, rivers, animals. The acting is fantastic, totally believable. The actors are incredible and perfectly cast – Catherine Keener as an aging hippie vagabond, Vince Vaughn as a wacky farmer growing who knows what, William Hurt as Chris' potbellied suburbanite dad, Marcia Gay Harden as the type of mom who breeds children who wants to run off to the wilderness to escape from her. Emile Hirsch plays Chris, and does a great job of it. When an actual photo of the real Chris McCandless comes on screen, we see that Hirsch resembles him. Original songs by Eddie Vedder give the right feel – that of a well-to-do young white man heading out on a chosen adventure, getting gritty by