Daniel Radcliffe and the two weeks of hell
It is not one of the newest films, but maybe the dust has not settled too much yet on the “Jungle”, since its release in 2017.
Based on a true story, “Jungle” is set in 1981, when a small group of travelers set off to explore the Bolivian Amazon jungle at the urging of a strange traveler; and, this goes on for an hour. Thanks to an unnecessarily long introduction, we learn that it’s a ‚woefully dangerous jungle’ and who is with whom, but unfortunately we have to wait until the plot unfolds, about sixty minutes before the writer-adventurer Yossi Ghinsberg, played by Daniel Radcliffe, finally gets himself in mortal danger and separated from the rest of the group. For the rest of the film, we witness a two-week hell of a journey that Ghinsberg goes through, from being alone to escaping; and, the film gradually turns from an ordinary adventure film into a gripping psychological thriller.
Throughout his days of survival, our protagonist is constantly surrounded by death, to which he refuses to surrender, but experiences what it feels like to be hungry, cold, bitten, stung, infected and similarly uncomfortable. In the meantime, his mind is overwhelmed, psychotic and, as it happens, he escapes from the jaws of death just when the viewer, conditioned to a happy ending, has given up on him.
The ending is particularly strong and, overall, the whole film is very much in place. Although it doesn’t promise to be a great redemption within the genre, it is a must for adventure film fans. Somehow we are living in an age of films and adaptations based on true stories, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Especially when they result in films like the “Jungle”.