Film critic Mark Kermode was saying this was his most favourite film of last year, one of those films where you don't hear characters explaining things as it goes along, I'd heard many good things about it, so I was looking forward to it, written and directed by Debra Granik (Winter's Bone). Basically Will (Ben Foster), an Iraq War veteran suffering from PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder), lives with his thirteen-year-old daughter Tom (Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie) in a public park in Portland, Oregon. They live in isolation, only entering town occasionally for food and supplies, and Will makes money by selling his painkillers issued by the VHA (Veterans Health Administration) to other veterans. One day, Tom is spotted in the woods by a jogger, and a short time later police surround them, officers arrest them and place them into social services. They are given food and a house on a Christmas tree farm in rural Oregon, on the condition that Will follows the rules of the homeowner and social services. Will begrudgingly starts work packaging trees but is traumatized by the helicopters used to move them. Tom connects with a boy who is building his own tiny house and seems to be relaxing in their new environment. But she reluctantly follows her father who wants to leave, he tells her that they would have been separated if they didn't conform. Will and Tom hitch a ride with a long-haul trucker (Art Hickman) north to the edge of trackless woods. They bushwhack hoping to find an unoccupied cabin, but it is getting dark and cold, they are forced to build a makeshift tent to survive the night. The next day, they find a vacant cabin and move in. Will leaves to find food but does not return before dark. The next morning, Tom searches for Will and discovers him unconscious at the bottom of a hill, she finds some locals who take them to their mobile home community. Will refuses to be taken to a hospital, so local woman Dale (Dale Dickey) calls her friend, a former Army medic (and fellow PTSD sufferer), who treats Will's leg and lends him his dog from the service. Will and Tom stay in the community while Will's injuries heal. Tom likes their new home, but eventually Will insists they leave. But Tom protests, saying "the same thing that's wrong with you isn't wrong with me." They leave the community together, but Tom stops in the forest, Will realises his daughter can no longer live the life he wants to. They tearfully hug, and part ways, Tom returns to the community, while Will returns to the woods, it is unclear if they will ever reunite. Also starring Jeff Kober as Mr. Walters, Dana Millican as Jean Bauer and Alyssa McKay as Valerie. Foster gives a good performance as the shattered and haunted ex-soldier, and McKenzie is a talent-to-watch as the young girl who is struggling to follow her father. It is a simple premise, a father and daughter living off the grid, a simple mistake and chance encounter changes everything, they are on the run, the daughter wants to remain in one place, while the father wants to keep going, it has good coming-of-age and back-to-nature themes, and the performances of the two leads are fantastic, overall it is a simplistic and interesting drama. Very good!
Review of Leave No Trace
