Wild (2014)

Reese Witherspoon does a very believable job of convincing us that she was a drug addled sex addict who frittered away a perfectly good marriage to a seemingly likable guy and in order to get her life back on track she decides to hike the Pacific Coast Trail.  Which may seem like yet another symptom of bad decisions that heroin addicts make, but in many ways what did not kill her made her stronger.

She has absolutely no experience hiking when she sets off on her three month 1,100 mile adventure in endurance.  She is literally pulling everything out of it's packing material the night before she sets off in the Mojave Desert, so laden down with weight that when she tips over she is like a turtle on her back.  She gets the wrong fuel for her stove, and her hiking boots are a size too small, which is almost the most unbelievable part of the story that she made it through the desert in them.

I know, it sounds like misery to watch this movie, but it is strangely peaceful to watch a woman gradually get herself on a better path, one that she was able to sustain (in the real life version of the story).  And there is some gorgeous scenery along the way.