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"Leave No Trace" – ★ ★ ★ ½
In the first moments of "Leave No Trace", we watch a man and his 13-year-old daughter talk without saying anything about their life as squatters in Forest Park, a stretch of 5,200 acres of public forests west of downtown Portland, Oregon. The unorthodox reception of their carefully hidden encampment, combined with a demonstration of well-honed survival techniques and the idyllic natural beauty of the scene, evokes memories of "Captain Fantastic", the 2016 comedy drama starring Viggo Mortensen eccentric children in the wilderness of the Pacific Northwest.
But these Arcadian images dissipate quickly in this intense, bitter-sweet narrative of what it means to be broken and whole. Written and directed by Debra Granik ("Winter & # 39; s Bone"), the film is inspired by Peter Rock's novel "My Abandonment" of 2009, itself inspired by the 2004 reports in the year. Oregonian of a father and a living daughter
In a short time, Will (Ben Foster) and his daughter Tom (Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie) were taken over by the authorities, revealing the fractured nature Will's hold on mental health – one the discomfort is all the more moving by the tenacity of his bond of love with his daughter
Veteran widower with post-traumatic stress, Will can no longer support human society, it seems, rejecting transitional housing in which he Tom is placed by social services. Almost as soon as they have been removed from their off-grid lifestyle, they quietly return to Will's life on the road.
A traumatized father (Ben Foster) shares a tender moment with his daughter (Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie) in "Leave No Trace ".
– Courtesy of Bleeker Street
The problem here is that Tom, having briefly sampled stability, does not necessarily want to fall back into alienation which, ironically, gave his father solace. "The same thing that's wrong with you," she said firmly to Will, "is not wrong with me." This tension emphasizes and accentuates everything in "Leave No Trace", which questions the very meaning of focus and homelessness, connection and loneliness. At another level, it's a story of maturity that uses Tom's reluctance to equate Will's dysfunction as a metaphor, even extreme, to the separation that comes with growing up.
Foster and McKenzie are almost symbiotic here, with the young actress, originally from New Zealand, delivering a startling performance that is, in all respects, the equal of Foster. Where Will is tormented, Tom is strong and brave – a wild child tempered by a discipline that, even misguided, is based on the spirit of self-confidence
"Leave No Trace" does not nothing grandiose to say about homelessness. PTSD. However, it provides an effective (and deeply touching) allegory of the inevitable taking of leave that we all experience with our loved ones.
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Starring: Ben Foster, Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie
Directed By: Debra Granik
Other Title: A Bleecker Street Exit. In limited version. (PG) 109 minutes
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