Leave No Trace is a remarkable motion picture and I wasn’t prepared for its cumulative emotional power, especially during the shattering final act. Theatrically released earlier this summer and now available on Blu-ray/DVD and via various streaming providers, co-writer and director Debra Granik (Down to the Bone, Winter’s Bone) has crafted a beautifully simple and clinically direct piece of cinema, focusing on a father (Ben Foster, never better) and daughter (talented up-and-comer Thomasin McKenzie) who are living in a Portland, Oregon park, and who venture only frequently into the regular world for supplies. They’ve created a carefully preserved private world and seem happy to have done so.
One day, they’re spotted by a jogger, who alerts authorities, and everything comes crashing down around them. Will they be separated? Why were they living a nomadic lifestyle?
What exactly is going on? Based on Peter Rock’s book My Abandonment, Granik and co-scenarist Anne Rosellini never overplay any moment of this carefully observed story, allowing their graceful narrative to unfold with low-key naturalism which heightens nearly every beat, and because both Foster and McKenzie share such wonderful chemistry, the on-screen familial bond that they created feels completely honest and believable.
This is a rather heartbreaking father-daughter scenario, and there’s nothing easy about anything that occurs in Leave No Trace.
Foster, who continues to be one of the most underrated actors in the business, delivers an astonishing and mostly internalized performance that pairs perfectly with his superb work in Oren Moverman’s The Messenger; there are so many hidden layers to his character in Leave No Trace, and because he’s playing someone with deep psychological wounds you’re never quite certain what he might do or say at any given point.
It’s quietly riveting work and I was blown away. Recalling Rooney Mara circa The Social Network, McKenzie allows her expressive face to handle some of the most intense sequences; sometimes a glance is all you need to convey something important. I notice she’s been cast in Top Gun 2; my guess is that many directors will be calling.
Character actors Dale Dickey and Jeff Kober figure into the narrative in key roles, and everyone else that surrounds the margins of this story feels plucked from their daily routines in an effort to convey a totally organic sense of storytelling. Everything about this movie felt real.
There wasn’t one scene that felt incorrect or improperly handled, and because Granik is so focused as a director, you get the sense that every single shot in this film came out as intended. It’s nearly insane to think that it’s taken Granik this long to get another feature film made, but that’s the business when you’re only making films that clearly speak to your heart and soul.
I don’t want to run the risk of over-selling the greatness of this film, either. For some viewers, this will be one of those movies where “nothing happened,” but on the contrary – SO MUCH is going on in every single scene that it sort of becomes overwhelming to think about the various situations that the characters have found themselves in, and because the film is so visually direct (the lucid and observational cinematography is by Michael McDonough) there’s nothing that gets lost or overly complicated.
Review by Nick Clement
Summary
This is the sort of storytelling that I’m anxious to see more of – character driven, not over-the-top, and cut from something that feels tangible and sincere. This is a great movie.
