Producers: Amy Berg, Aaron Paul, Hunter Doohan, Lily Blavin, Larissa Beck and Ali Edwards   Director: Spencer King   Screenplay: Spencer King   Cast: Hunter Doohan, Lamar Johnson, Aaron Holliday, Vinessa Shaw, Matt Gomez Hidaka, James Le Gros, Sean Avery, Sam Jaeger, Liana Liberato, Arie Thompson, Adam Johnson and Colleen Baum   Distributor: Dark Star Pictures

Grade: B-

A cautionary tale about the dangers of those “wilderness camps” designed as tough-love experiences to encourage troubled teens to change their ways, Spencer King’s film is particularly notable for a sensitive performance by Hunter Doohan in the lead role.

Doohan, quite convincingly playing much younger than his actual age, is Ed, a boy traumatized, as we learn late in the plot, by the death of his wayward father (James Le Gros); an insert shows him among the mourners scattering the dead man’s ashes into the sea from their surfboards.  The boy’s actions since convince his mother to have him literally abducted from his bedroom and driven to the remote camp.  (The picture was shot in Boulder, Utah, and King and cinematographer Sean Mouton employ the locations to impressive widescreen effect.)

Ed, sullen but cowed, is instructed about what’s expected of him by James (Sam Jaeger), the calm but quietly unnerving head of the camp who tells him that the duration of his stay is up to him.  Gradually he settles into the rough routine, taking orders from James’s lieutenant Rich (Sean Avery) and interacting with the other youngsters (Aaron Holliday, Matt Gomez Hidaka) but developing his deepest friendship with Miles (Lamar Johnson), a restless, voluble boy with whom he eventually decides to try escaping.  When the terrain gets rough, however, Ed has second thoughts, and his decision to return to the camp while Miles goes on alone has tragic consequences.

“The Wilderness” is hardly a one-person show, but Doohan really carries the picture, capturing Ed’s vulnerability in an environment that’s out of his experience.  (Curiously, however, the danger comes exclusively from the rugged landscape; there’s no sign of animals that might threaten the campers.)  Nonetheless Johnson brings volatility to Miles, and Jaeger a simmering sinister undertone to self-assured James. 

King’s dialogue is straightforward and his pacing very deliberate, the unhurried feel accentuated by Amir Mosallaie’s editing, which allows individual sequences, like a stay at a girls’ camp where medical assistance is available for an injured boy, to sometimes drag.  But the approach encourages the tension over Ed’s vacillation to build gradually, and when the script springs its final revelation, the suddenly excited staging carries an emotional punch even though King’s means are definitely melodramatic.

There’s obviously an agenda behind “The Wilderness,” with closing captions that carry a monitory message.  But especially because of the commitment behind Doohan’s performance, this relatively simple tale of a teen’s painful coming of age proves surprisingly powerful.