You know those movies that show the triumph of the human spirit over insurmountable odds, that show the pain of losing yourself and the joy of finding your way back again, the power in realizing how small and insignificant you are compared to the vast wonders of the world?

Well, this is not one of them.

Why was Reese Witherspoon even nominated for an Oscar? I can understand why Laura Dern would be, but I simply don’t get why Reese had to be. I didn’t see Cake, but just on the premise alone, it seems Jennifer Aniston had more to do than what I actually saw Reese do.

Was the movie supposed to be bleak and depressing? I thought that Cheryl Strayed’s journey through the Pacific Crest Trail was supposed to be uplifting, because after all, her reasons for undertaking it were to get over (or through) a horrendous time in her life. Maybe it was the movie’s conceit of showing flashbacks of her troubled youth parallel to her present journey, but to me it just dragged everything down. There wasn’t enough time to feel any sympathy for the character. Why should I care if this woman is taking this solo hike? Why should I be invested in any way?

The first 30 minutes of the movie already felt like 2 hours, and I had to ask myself what I did wrong and why I was being punished. Whyyyy. Why God, why.