Metrograph

Based on Minneapolis woman Cheryl Strayed’s best-selling memoir recalling a 1995 solo hiking expedition, undertaken in response to her mounting personal tragedies, during which despite her inexperience she traversed 1,100 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mexican border to Oregon on foot, Vallée’s film stars a grittily committed Reese Witherspoon as Strayed and Dern, seen in the free-associative flashbacks interspersed through the film, as her late, force-of-nature mother—the actresses were nominated respectively, for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress at the Academy Awards for their roles. “Dern… tears at our emotions during her scenes with Witherspoon… One of the most honest, complex portrayals of a mother-daughter relationship that we’ve seen in any recent movie.” —The Hollywood Reporter