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When Connor Layne (Malcolm In The Middle's Christoper Masterson), having recently graduated from college and about to marry his girlfriend Kate (Alexandra Breckenridge), discovers that she's been screwing his best friend, he exposes said infidelity with an amusingly-staged prank at the ceremony and storms out on his would-be bride looking to get as far away from the honeymoon he intended as possible. Taking a flight to South America (much to the consternation of his disapproving parents, played by Maria Conchita Alonso and Ernie Lively), he quickly loses himself in experiences both pleasurable (involving topless sirens) and sobering (involving shirt-stealing muggers). Weeks pass before he ends up crossing paths with a pair of American adventurers in a local bar, Christoper Loren (Johnny Messner) and his wife Darlene (Brooke Burns), who offer Connor a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Seems the two are planning a months-long expedition to cross the Darien Gap, a hundred-mile stretch of sweltering jungle between Panama and Columbia. Connor, not having anything currently planned, agrees to join them and their crew of fellow trailblazers (James Duvall, Shalim Ortiz, Jake Muxworthy) on their journey.
 The path is long and treacherous, with many rivers to forge and endless patches of foliage to clear away to make way for the group's all-terrain jeep, but Connor finds the experience rewarding in many ways... learning to be at peace with himself, meeting many of the jungle's tribal inhabitants, and falling in love with fellow adventurer Anna (the lovely newcomer Angelika Baran, who's only previous acting credit per the IMDB was as "sorority girl" in an episode of Smallville), whom he eventually woos with an impromptu, fireside guitar rendition of the song "The Rainbow Connection" from The Muppet Movie(!). These experiences in live and love soon toughen Connor from boy to man, and his post-jungle trek travels with new girlfriend Anna awaken a great, insatiable hunger within him to experience as much of the world and the people within it as he can.
A pleasingly picturesque travelogue and coming-of-age story, The Art Of Travel is basically Into The Wild Lite, but it's a nice little drama peppered with fine performances (Masterson in particular stands out), well-chosen moments of humor and pathos, and, hey, bare tits! It's not a film that will haunt you like Sean Penn's movie did, but it's a nicely-observed look at camaraderie, stick-to-it-iveness and the like. As far as unsolicited screeners go, it's definitely a pleasant surprise.
 Presentation
Compared to the shamefully awful screener copy of Bangkok Dangerous provided to me by First Look Studios, I was leery when this arrived in my mailbox, but this is thankfully leagues better from a technical standpoint. The film's 1.85:1 aspect ratio is reproduced in a fine, anamorphic transfer that nicely reproduced the lush, HD-camera location photography. The soundtrack (in English Dolby Digital 5.1 only) isn't very elaborate, but the surrounding jungle ambiance (rustling leaves, the chirrrrr-chirrrr of various insects, pattering raindrops) blends nicely with the pleasant score by Danny Elfman's regular orchestrator, Steve Bartek.
 Extras
Aside from the film's theatrical trailer (1:04), there's only a previews menu pimping other First Look Studios DVD releases (in a nice touch, they're all presented in anamorphic widescreen). Enjoy sneak peeks at Miss Conception (1:02 - Heather Graham with an English accent!), Meet Bill (2:33 - Aaron Eckhart gets to choose between Jessica Alba and Elizabeth Banks? Fuck you, Harvey), War, Inc. (1:54), August (1:44), Brad Anderson's Strangers-On-A-Train thriller Transsiberian (1:36) and the wonderfully-titled Takeshi Miike film Sukiyaki Western Django (1:58). There are some cast & crew podcasts for the film floating around on it's website and on YouTube, and it would have been nice if they had been preserved here.
Bottom Line
A good way to kick back and enjoy a trip to places you'll likely never see on your pitiful salary, The Art Of Travel is a small-scale winner.
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