DIRECTOR PENN AND HIS YOUNG STAR TAKE A WALK ON THE WILD SIDE.

Byline: BOB STRAUSS

>FILM CRITIC

Sean Penn has wanted to make a film out of "Into the Wild" ever since he read Jon Krakauer's best-selling book. That decade's worth of pent-up desire has resulted in a work of vibrant, loving care.

Penn seems to have been as devoted to re-creating the life of Christopher McCandless as the young vagabond was to living it. And that's pretty dedicated.

For those who don't know, McCandless was the bright son of an aerospace engineer who, upon graduating from college in the early 1990s, severed ties with all family and friends, gave away his savings, changed his name to Alexander Supertramp and headed west, where he wandered around for two years before going off alone into the Alaska wilderness. It was the adventure he didn't survive.

Shot in many of the locations (or as close as he could get to them) that McCandless actually roamed, Penn's film is both impressionistic and natural, as concerned with recording this strange, charismatic young man's physical journey as it is with intimating his inner development along the way.

Cinematography (Eric Gautier, who shot "Motorcycle Diaries" and Alain Resnais' "Private Fears in Public Places"), editing (Jay Cassidy, of Penn's previous directing efforts "The Pledge," "The Crossing Guard" and "The Indian Runner") and the stirring songs Eddie Vedder wrote and recorded for the soundtrack crucially contribute to the overall effect.

But of course, casting is the key element, and a better choice than Emile Hirsch could hardly be imagined. The young actor from "Alpha Dog" and "The Girl Next Door" radiates intelligence, idealism and the personability that made McCandless a joy to practically everyone he met. But he also gets the latter-day hippie's stubbornness, his fatal naivete and how he used resentment against his parents to justify keeping even the people he came closest to on the road at arm's length.

If the film makes one real misstep, it's in not more critically addressing McCandless' emotional isolation. But that's an aspect of Penn's script. Hirsch never fails to convince us of Chris' cocksure hubris, open heart and questioning soul.

Plus -- talk about Method acting -- the kid nearly killed himself making this movie, kayaking down murderous Colorado River rapids and losing some 41 pounds to portray McCandless' final, desperate days in that old abandoned bus in the middle of nowhere. Commitment to a role doesn't get greater than this.

It could also be said that "Into the Wild" is a bit too starry-eyed about how much Chris meant to everybody whose lives he touched. But some mighty

poignant supporting performances would suffer from more cynicism.

Standouts in a uniformly superb cast are Jena Malone as Chris' adoring, abandoned sister (her voice-over observations provide key insights); Brian Dierker, the film's marine consultant, who makes his acting debut as an RV-driving, longhaired surrogate father figure (and Catherine Keener as the dude's old lady); and Vince Vaughn as a trouble-prone Midwestern farmhand.

The last and most moving of Chris' encounters is with a lonely old man named Ron Franz. He opens the modest, California desert home he's hidden out in for years to the wayward lad, and a kind of simple, mutual inspiration is shared. Played with exquisite discretion by Hal Holbrook, Ron is the most touching figure to grace a movie screen this year.

"Into the Wild" is a strangely civilized movie about trying to escape the restraints of society. It's also Penn's most accessible directing effort, while still as uncompromising as his more demanding, less friendly stuff. Grow or die is one law of nature, and if McCandless misapprehended that to his fatal detriment, it looks like the rebel behind the camera understands it extremely well.

Bob Strauss, [phone]

[e-mail]

INTO THE WILD - Three and one half stars

>R: Nudity, sex, violence, drug use, language.

>Starring: Emile Hirsch, Marcia Gay Hardin, William Hurt, Jena Malone, Brian Dierker, Catherine Keener, Vince Vaughn, Hal Holbrook, Kristen Stewart.

>Director: Sean Penn.

>Running time: 2 hr. 28 min.

>Playing: ArcLight, Hollywood; Landmark, West L.A.

>In a nutshell: Hirsch is thoroughly impressive in Penn's best directing effort yet.

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Emile Hirsch portrays Christopher McCandless, a young man who gave away his savings, severed all ties with family and friends, changed his name and embarked on a solitary adventure that would prove fatal in "Into the Wild."