Kristen Stewart and Emile Hirsch star in a scene from the movie "Into the Wild." The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompany ing parent or adult guardian.

(CNS photo/Paramount Vantage)

NEW YORK (CNS) -- "There is pleasure in the pathless woods, there is rapture on the lonely shore," begins the quotation from Lord Byron that opens this remarkable film.

"Into the Wild" (Paramount Vantage/River Road) is an episodic but absorbing road movie, based on Jon Krakauer's 1998 biography of idealistic 22-year-old Christopher McCandless (Emile Hirsch) who, after graduation from Emory University, abandoned his home, his troubled parents, Billie (Marcia Gay Harden) and Walt (William Hurt), and his sister, Carine (Jena Malone), to embark on an epic two-year road trip from Atlanta to Alaska.

Changing his name to Alexander Supertramp, he would ultimately reach his destination, but would have myriad adventures on the way, traveling through North Dakota, Arizona and California, including a dangerous trek on the Colorado River, bumming on trains (he endures a severe beating when he's caught by a rail official), sleeping in homeless shelters, taking short-term jobs and so on.

A devotee of Henry David Thoreau and Jack London, he is determined to avoid the "poison" of civilization and get back to nature, and despite warnings from those who befriend him along the way, he's stubbornly set on getting to Alaska. Along the way, he encounters a number of nonconformists who pass on wisdom to the young man, while he in turn touches them deeply.

Once in the Yukon, he sets himself up in an abandoned bus. Fans of the book and those who remember the news coverage at the time will know how the story ends.

Actor Sean Penn directed, wrote and produced the film with distinction. Though leisurely paced, the narrative builds in emotional power as it progresses, and the ending may leave you in tears.

Eric Gautier's cinematography is often ravishingly beautiful and the performances are very fine. They include those playing the colorful characters Chris encounters on his journey. There's Catherine Keener as Jan Burres, a woman who has lost touch with her own son and has a special empathy for Chris; nonactor (one of several in the film) Brian Dierker as her hippie-boyfriend, Rainey; Vince Vaughn as farmer Wayne Westerberg; and especially Hal Holbrook as Ron Franz, an elderly ex-military widower who takes a fatherly shine to Chris. He also meets a lonely 16-year-old, would-be folk singer (Kristen Stewart), and admirably resists her sad invitation for intimacy.

There are a few elements that may bother some viewers. Along the way Chris encounters several free spirits, including a cheerful Danish couple, the wife nonchalantly topless, but the scene is not at all salacious. Similarly, there's a quick no-nonsense passing scene of nudists. In a different vein, there's also the shooting of a moose, whose carcass we see cut up in rather grisly detail. And at one point, Ron alludes to Chris having had "trouble with the church," though the remark is not explained, and in any case what follows certainly leads Chris to a deep communion with God.

The film's underlying themes of family connection, individualism versus community and the primal pull of the wilderness are capped by a moving climax involving forgiveness, redemption and intense spirituality.

The film contains some rough language and profanity, upper female and brief full-frontal male nudity, the killing and then cutting up of an animal carcass, a beating, implied premarital situations and reference to a bigamous relationship. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-III -- adults. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is R -- restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

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Forbes is director of the Office for Film & Broadcasting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. More reviews are available online at www.usccb.org/movies.