The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) stretches 2,663 miles up from Mexico to Canada. In the new movie starring Reese Witherspoon, Wild, the trail is the setting, the hero, and sometimes, the villain.

Wild is based off of the memoir of the same name by Cheryl Strayed. It chronicles her 1,100-mile hike through the PCT. The book was written in 2012, and it didn’t take long for the movie to come rolling out behind it.

The movie follows Strayed through the trail, where she begins in the south. As she travels north, we begin to figure out why she’s out here in the first place. Flashbacks show that she’s recently divorced, and coming off of a heroin problem coupled with a series of affairs. Then, to top it off, we find out her mother has died. Her life seems to be spiraling downhill when during an unpleasant meeting with a friend, a guidebook to the PCT catches her eye. After some more unfortunate news, Strayed runs back into a store and grabs the guidebook, declaring to her concerned friend that she’s going to walk herself back to the person she used to be.

The flashbacks are necessary. Usually in movies flashbacks can be choppy, disrupting and distracting. In Wild, they’re interesting. The flashbacks paint vignettes of Strayed’s old life, a seemingly destructive and hard place, but one that by the end of the movie, I’m interested in learning more about. The relationship with her family becomes more interesting as the movie goes on, as does her marriage. Calls back to her ex-husband make it evident that this hike was definitely fueled by their split, among other things. Most of all though, the flashbacks keep the movie itself interesting. The film is two hours long, and as much as outdoor enthusiasts would love a movie of only nature shots and gear close-ups, (normal) people need a bit more to stay awake. The intricate, messy, and complex life story that Strayed has woven keeps the momentum going throughout as we learn more and more about her life, and as she completes more of the hike.

The movie is marketed to outdoor enthusiasts, though. While Reese Witherspoon surely draws the general public, a movie about hiking largely appeals to hikers. There are a lot of elements that are surprising, hard to believe, and frustrating for those who are experienced with the outdoors.

First, her pack. Nicknamed “monster” by a few fellow hikers on her trip, her pack must have weighed at least 70 pounds. It’s painful to watch. The first time she puts it on she cannot even lift the thing, and has to sit down on the floor, strap in, and stand up with it on that way. It’s mildly infuriating. Eventually, she loses some of the bulk but still seems to be heavily weighed down. Coffee cups, books, lamps, and other excessive gear dangles from her pack and it’s all begging to be left in a free box somewhere.

Her lack of experience is painful to watch, also. On day one, she walks five miles and sets up camp. She brings a chair, and the wrong type of fuel for her stove. Her lack of preparation for this massive trip is hard to fathom. At one point, she meets up with another hiker who speaks about all of the preparation and training for the hike, to which she smiles and nods.

There are times where she runs dangerously close to dying, also. She runs out of food within days, and runs out of water once in the desert. I wondered how much water did she have, all that was visible in the movie were two Nalgene bottles, which usually run at 32 ounces—enough for two days at the most. Where did she get her water? Where did she get her food? How the hell is this physically possible for her? Outdoor nerds are might be the only ones concerned with this, but it still made for a few holes in the story.

There was definitely a lot packed into the two hour block, but that didn’t leave much room for beautiful panning nature shots, which might come as a disappointment to outdoor people. There were shots of rolling hills and flatlands, but it seemed like all of those shots needed to be panned out just a little bit more. Much of the film was shot off-location, so getting these shots is surely a challenge, but would have made more sense, in terms of how transformational a hike like this can actually be.

Wild skipped back and forth on a timeline. It started halfway through her hike, went back to the beginning, went further back to her past, then fast forward to her hike, and then around again. It was always moving, like Strayed on the trail. When she finally gets to Oregon, though, we are hit with a little reality. She takes a look at a newspaper and Jerry Garcia’s death is announced, finally we get a sense of time, and Strayed does too. She wanders through hippies singing Grateful Dead songs and finds herself in the public eye for the first time in a weeks, a strange feeling made obvious by her awkward social interactions.

Wild beautifully illustrates exactly what the outdoors can do. Reset yourself, recharge, and work through problems. It’s the movie that reassures what outdoor lovers know so well—the wild can change people. It’s inspiring, and anyone who has ever taken an interest in thru-hiking will surely be pushed further towards the curiosity.

If someone as unprepared, overgeared, undertrained, and overwhelmed as Cheryl Strayed can do 1,100 miles in the backcountry, it seems like anyone could do it, with a little bit of determination. It serves as a reminder that no matter how much gear you have, no matter how much experience or preparation you’ve done—it doesn’t mean you will absolutely be successful, it just means that the trip will be a little bit easier.