Review 798: Wildwood

Wildwood is a moving, exciting   a truckload of outstanding world-building, sumptuous visuals and tender weighty themes that tugs at the heartstrings and even has us on the edge of our seat at times. A project more than five years in the making 

Based on the novel Wildwood by Colin Meloy & Carson Ellis; Prue McKeel (Peyton Elizabeth Lee) is an adolescent who lives in Portland with her hippie parents (Maya Erskine and Jake Johnson) and her baby brother Mac (director Travis Knight's youngest son Arthur). Their parents have raised them on tales of the Dark Woods and the impassible wilderness that is out there and that they must never venture outdoors. But one day when the parents are out at a craft fair, Prue takes baby Mac outside  

Visually, Wildwood is a feast for the eyes, the model sets and all set to a majestic score by Dario Marianelli.

Over the course of the film, they're surrounded but a colourful cast of characters voiced by a  Carey Mulligan, Mahershala Ali, Richard E. Grant, Angela Bassett, Awkwafina, Amandla Stenberg, Charlie Day, Jake Johnson, Maya Erskine, Rob Delaney and Jemaine Clement, rather awesome. 

Alexandra is built up as a genuinely tragic villain, someone so madden by loss and grief that she'll put that and her own wants and needs before others. At the end of the day all she wants is her son back  Despite this, she's never anything other than polite and