Be prepared, there is nothing like watching someone pull off their own damaged toe nail to make you wince. And that's the least of the horrors waiting for Cheryl Strayed when she sets out on a 1000 mile solo trek along America's Pacific Crest Trail.

Though in truth, where's she's coming from is a whole lot worse than a broken nail. “I'm going to walk myself back to the woman my mother thought I was,” she says, ominously.

Wild is a journey of rebirth. Strayed was so devastated by the loss of her best friend and mother, unbearable grief saw her loose her job, her marriage, her child and turn from soft drugs to hard. A wake up call took her to the start of the trail in the hope that, a thousand miles later, she'd find peace. The journey, somewhat like that taken by Robin Davidson (Tracks) though for very different reasons, would become a memoir and in turn, a film.

Like Tracks, though for different reasons, Wild is a challenging, emotional and often beautiful film to watch. Central to that is the forceful performance by Reese Witherspoon (Walk The Line), one that avoids sentimentality despite being the centre of a very sentimental story. She's given the gift of Laura Dern (We Don't Live Here Anymore) to work against who, as Strayed's mother, a victim of domestic violence who had turned her own life around, is simply electric. The love that bonds their characters is tantalising and leaves no doubt about Cheryl's meltdown when that bond is tragically severed. Together the pair are mesmerising.

Canadian director Jean-Marc Vallée (Cafe De Flore) slowly builds force as he cuts delicately between Cheryl's back-story and her unbreakable determination on the trail. It's a visual and audible treat as the layers mount to create a definitive whole, rather like seeing the world through a prism that suddenly snaps into focus. As with his previous films, music plays an integral part and gives Wild an unusual flavour as familiar songs take shape in unexpected ways. Credit also goes to novelist Nick Hornby (An Education) whose snappy script remains credible throughout.

Because an ongoing sense of menace never fully takes hold (and for good reasons, most of it toys with our expectations rather than any real threat), Wild finally plays as an inspiration piece where the most horrific moment is back there with the toe nail. Some of it is rather funny, such as an encounter with a writer for The Hobo Times who wouldn't take reality for an answer. Mostly this is a story about how ordinary things can break ordinary people, and how, given a chance, they can be put back together again.

Cheryl's mother lived to put herself 'in the way of beauty', a line of thinking that her daughter sought to copy. It was good advice as a lone hiker knowingly observes, for it has the restorative 'power to fill you up'.

// COLIN FRASER

Previewed at Event Cinemas, George St, Sydney, on 13 January 2015