Movie Review - Leave No Trace

Writer-director Debra Granik (Winter's Bone and Down to the Bone) again adapts a novel. This time it's My Abandonment by Peter Rock. Rock's novel won the same Alex Award that Jeannette Walls' book The Glass Castle also won. That's notable because both The Glass Castle and Rock's novel have similar premises. It's about a young woman having to break away from her father whose lifestyle of living off the grid or literally living in the woods is either untenable or too unstable. The dynamics are slightly different and if anything, Granik's film is more in line with the recent Oscar-nominated pic, Captain Fantastic (2016), which is about a man who abandons modern society and takes his family to live in the woods in the state of Washington, mainly for ideological reasons.

Ben Foster (Hell or High Water and 3:10 to Yuma) stars as Will, a military veteran who supposedly lived in Portland, Oregon, with his daughter. He reports to the Veterans Affairs Hospital or VA Hospital for medication and what not. He does have a daughter who is now 13 years-old and who has no memory of her mother. It's never said if the mother has died or not, but presumably that's the case. When the film begins, Will is living with his daughter in a camp deep in the woods or some forested park near Portland. It's not clear how long Will and his daughter have been squatting out there, but it wouldn't be surprising if it's been for years, if not the better part of a decade.

In The Glass Castle, Walls' father isn't really attracted to the woods as he just has to take his family into poor situations due to his alcoholism. Will is attracted to the woods, but it might also be due to an affliction. His affliction isn't a substance abuse problem. Will's affliction is or could be post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. It's never articulated, but  there are enough context clues that indicate that Will suffers from PTSD. In an early moment, Will is awakened with sounds of war in his head. He never speaks on it. He merely eschews material possessions like cell phones and says he doesn't want to live by "their rules." Who they are is never clear. Perhaps, it's American society as a whole and he instead yearns for peace and tranquility that comes from self-reliance and detachment from societal demands, which he possibly blames for leading to his PTSD.

Will's retreat into the woods, though not intellectualized, is emotionally rendered in several, if mainly subtle ways. Granik's direction and the performances from both Foster and the actress playing his daughter help to sell that emotional rendering. This film thus is more effective than even Captain Fantastic, which felt more like an academic exercise that never satisfied even on the academics. The Glass Castle felt a little overwrought. Those other films were also a little unwieldy because its cast was a lot bigger. The other films all had a father wrangling multiple children. Here, Will just has one.

Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie (Shortland Street) co-stars as Tom, the aforementioned daughter of Will, a teenage girl who is very much a daddy's girl. She loves him and follows him everywhere. She does whatever he tells her. Again, it's totally unclear how long she's been in the woods with her dad, but one thing is clear. She's absolutely smart and she's absolutely adaptable. Whether it's in the woods or it's on a farm or in a RV park, Tom can live anywhere. She can befriend anyone. Unfortunately, her father can't and he chooses to wander from one part of the woods to another, or from one forest to another, preferring isolation.

Despite the love between the two, most of the film does become the tension of Tom wanting to stop wandering and put down some roots, whereas Will always wanting to be ready to get up and run. Unlike in Captain Fantastic, it doesn't seem as if living in the woods is ever romanticized. It's not to say that something akin to Henry David Thoreau's Walden couldn't be achieved by someone in modern-day America, but it has to be done under parameters, parameters that Will simply can't accept.

Rated PG for thematic material.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 49 mins.

Available on DVD and VOD.