Jamie passion and passionfruit!

A road trip on film.  A treatise of escaping from society on celluloid.  Sean Penn does something very different and it is undoubtedly up to the high quality of his previous work.  It is also rather long.  This is the real story of Alexander Supertramp, a highly intelligent student from a well-off family who drops out of society, hikes around the US and ends up in Alaska, where he eventually dies.  He is a resourceful, organised, systematic boy but at the same time, there is something extreme in his mind which leads him to this sort of suicide.  We follow Alex around a variety of locations in the States and Mexico in the early 90’s which provides an interesting look at the drifters and small people of the US.  There are occasional voiceovers from his sister and flashbacks to a violent family life and many scenes of survival in Alaska which would do credit to an Audubon magazine.  Penn helps us to understand his motivation in hitting the road and keeping on it, the scenes of nature are gorgeous, and undeniably wild.  We have some nice relationships along the way, with Wayne (Vince Vaughan) with Jan (Catherine Keener) and Mr Franz (Hal Holbrook).  Emile Hirsch is absolutely fine as Alex, it is one of those roles you slip into and live.  Apart from all the respect Penn shows to his characters, he also recreates the rhythms of this trip.  And it is there that perhaps, we find in parts that despite the pleasure of the images, the film begins to seem rather long and self-indulgent.  Nevertheless. It is overall, quite an achievement.

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