The only thing I knew about this movie sitting down was that my wife had read the book a few years ago and Sean Penn directed it. I eventually gave up after two hours of watching a selfish brat do whatever he wanted.
The story follows a young man who is sickened by modern society's obsession with owning and buying "things". He is shown to have had a difficult relationship with his parents. This presumably because all tortured souls are like that because of their parents. He hits the road and the movie jumps back and forward between his eventual demise in Alaska and his long route to get there.
I think we are somehow supposed to feel empathy for the character. I had none. I can see why a self-obsessed narcissist would appeal to those living in Hollywood but at least the same types of characters in the movie business actually create something. What did this pointless waste-of-space create? A best selling book for someone else?
So we get to see him meet up with lots of crusties and hippies and nice people contrasted crudely with the mean establishment people.
Eventually he gets to Alaska and lives in a broken down bus in the middle of nowhere in deep winter. He survives for quite a while doing nothing useful for mankind or himself. I gave up at this point but my wife tells me he ate some bad roots and died. I don't care and neither should you.
