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It should come as no surprise that actor Sean Penn has directed a film with such power and passion as Into the Wild, after all, this effort is not a one-shot deal. While maintaining his successful acting career, Penn has been quietly directing several powerful films for 16 years: from The Indian Runner in 1991 to The Pledge in 2001. Into the Wild details the true story of Christopher McCandless, a 23-year-old Emory University graduate who, in 1992, left his middle-class world behind to seek meaning in life by searching America's West and eventually Alaska, where he lived in an abandoned school bus.

Penn's film, with its recursive narrative, told in part with voice-over narration by Chris and his sister Carine, has the look and the feel of a late 1960s road film, with an unconventional protagonist who seeks self-discovery and wisdom while hitchhiking, train riding, kayaking and hiking the roads, byways and rivers of the American countryside. While reminiscent of the carefree spirit of films like Easy Rider and Bound for Glory, Penn's Into the Wild develops a darker tone echoing the feel of Werner Herzog's documentary The Grizzly Man.

Penn's sensitivity to the actors' skills is handled nicely as his cast achieves very believable, understated and realistic performers. Newcomer Emile Hirsch (Alpha Dog) plays Chris with an appropriate wide-eyed abandon and like a modern-day Gulliver, runs into some of the most interesting and eccentric people on his episodic travels. While working in South Dakota he befriends a farmer, played with unusual naturalness by Vince Vaughn. Later Chris hitches a ride with a pair of middle-aged hippies (Catherine Keener and Brian Dierker) and eventually in the desert Southwest, he connects with an old widower, who teaches him perspective about needing others in his life's circle. Hal Holbrook is wonderful in this small, but crucial role. William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden are also subtly effective as Chris' compulsive, self-absorbed parents. Into the Wild is a film that lingers with you. It's a true tale about the road to a free spirit and its haunting conclusion.