Wild Life (2023): Kinda, Sorta

Periodically,  the NYT runs a piece highlighting three “great” documentaries available for streaming. The most recent one (March 31, 2023) featured Hoop Dreams from 1994, The Fog of War from 2003, and Crip Camp (2020). It’s a disparate group of movies. The award-winning Hoop Dreams is about the ever-narrowing pipeline that funnels youthful basketball talent to the NBA; focusing on those who don’t ultimately succeed (the vast majority) and on how the system exploits underclass kids and their families. The Fog of War, 2004’s Oscar winner (best documentary feature), centers on a lengthy interview with 85-year-old Robert McNamara (who is by turns insightful and disingenuous) exploring his influential role in the Vietnam war as Secretary of Defense under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson,  and the policy-makers’ psychology of self-justification and denial. Crip Camp makes the case that a visionary sleep-over summer camp for disabled kids not only provided a transformative experience for the campers but played an important role in igniting the disability rights movement in the US, which has transfigured American attitudes.

I was attracted to Wild Life, the new movie from National Geographic Films, because it’s directed by the amazing husband and wife team of Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin the duo who’ve previously directed the gorgeous, gripping climbing adventure documentaries Meru (2015) and Free Solo (2018), and more recently made The Rescue (2021), a brilliant documentary about the incredible, improbable rescue of 12 kids and their soccer coach from way deep inside a flooded cave in Thailand (during a monsoon!).  Wild Life is an interesting and at times visually beautiful movie but does not rank in the “great” category of Vasarhelyi and Chin’s earlier films or the three docs highlighted by the NY Times articles I just mentioned. 

Rather than paraphrase or recapitulate National Geo’s summary of their movie, I’ll simply quote it: “Wild Life follows conservationist Kris Tompkins on an epic, decades-spanning love story as wild as the landscapes she dedicated her life to protecting. After falling in love in mid-life, Kris and the outdoorsman and entrepreneur Doug Tompkins left behind the world of the massively successful outdoor brands they'd helped pioneer – Patagonia, The North Face, and Esprit - and turned their attention to a visionary effort to create national parks throughout Chile and Argentina - the largest private land donation in history.” All true, except the puffed-up claim that Kris and Doug’s love affair was “wild’. Unless one considers the means with which extravagantly rich guys court attractive, accomplished women – luxury travel by private jet to remote jungle villas, introduction to other famous entrepreneurs and adventurers, and so forth – as “wild.”

Which is my problem with Wild Life. It is a wonderful thing for mega-millionaires to use gobs of money to buy up thousands of acres of unspoiled land and save it from development or predation by donating same to national governments, conditional on their designating the land as national parks – which is what the Tompkinses did. It really is a great thing. And as I’ve said, it is rather interesting to learn how they went about it. But it’s far from a gripping story, and I can’t even describe it as fascinating. Same goes for the romance between Doug and Kris. I mean, for them, it’s portrayed as the love of a lifetime. Fine. But for the rest of us … it’s just, um, “nice”. The story of how Doug died on a kayaking adventure during a freak storm and how a grieving Kris dealt with her loss, is certainly touching, but I have to be honest – it does not raise the overall narrative of the film to “great” or must see” status.  While there are, scattered throughout the picture, some lovely views of the beautiful landscapes of interest to the Tompkinses, such moments are not nearly as astounding or frequent as in Vasarhelyi and Chin’s previous works.

To me, Wild Life felt more like a puff piece honoring esteemed friends of the filmmakers than any kind of important movie. Other than their steadfast and certainly laudable devotion to the South American national parks project - funded by their wealth - there's not much that's morally or otherwise stirring about the tale. It is a workmanlike, very professional documentary, and if the topic interests you, by all means, you should check it out. It will open with a short theatrical release (see below) and then late next month will be featured on the National Geographic Channel and on Disney+. If you like this sort of thing, those might be the best places to see it. 

93 minutes Rated PG-13

Grade: B-

Currently screening at select theaters in New York City and the District of Columbia.  Click HERE for theaters and times. Rolling out to select theaters nationwide over the next several weeks. In the Bay area, it will open at the Landmark Opera Plaza in SF and the Smith Rafael film Center on April 19, and at the Rialto Theaters in Berkeley and Sebastopol on April 21. Streaming May 25 on the National Geographic Channel, and beginning May26 on Disney+.