Leave No Trace is a 2018 American drama film directed by Debra Granik. The film is written by Granik and Anne Rosellini, based on Peter Rock's 2009 novel My Abandonment, which is loosely based on a true story. The plot follows a military veteran father (Ben Foster) with post-traumatic stress disorder who lives in the forest with his young daughter (Thomasin McKenzie).
Leave No Trace premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, and was theatrically released by Bleecker Street in the United States on June 29, 2018. It is the most reviewed film to hold a rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Plot Will, a veteran suffering from PTSD, lives with his teenage daughter Tom in the old growth Forest Park in Portland, Oregon. They live in isolation, relying on survival skills and only entering the town occasionally for supplies. Will makes money by selling his Veterans Health Administration-issued benzodiazepines to another homeless veteran.
After Tom is spotted in the woods by a jogger, the father and daughter duo are arrested by park rangers and detained by social services. They are assessed and Tom is found to be educationally advanced for her age despite not attending school. They find a house to live in on a Christmas tree farm in rural Oregon in exchange for Will's work on the farm. Will begrudgingly begins work packaging trees, but is bothered by the helicopters used to move them. Tom meets a local boy who is building his own tiny house, who introduces her to the local 4-H youth club. Social services continue to check on Will and Tom and require constant form filling.
One morning, Will suddenly decides to leave. Tom follows reluctantly. The pair return to their camp in the park, but find it destroyed. Will and Tom try to travel in a railroad boxcar but eventually catch a ride with a trucker who takes them to Washington state. After being dropped off, at a remote forest area, they build a temporary shelter for the night. The next day they discover a vacant cabin and move in. Will leaves to find food but does not return. The next morning, Tom discovers him unconscious at the bottom of a ravine with a seriously injured foot.
Tom gets help from local quadbikers, who take them to their mobile home community. Tom refuses to let Will be taken to a hospital. Dale, a local woman, calls a friend who is a former Army medic to treat Will's injury. Will and Tom are given an empty trailer in the community while he recovers. The medic also has PTSD and lends his service dog to help Will with his nightmares. A local teaches Tom about beehives. Tom likes their new home and tries to make a rental agreement with Dale, the trailer's owner, without telling Will. Eventually, Will insists that he and Tom leave. Tom protests, telling him "the same thing that's wrong with you isn't wrong with me".
After leaving the RV community, Tom stops and says to Will, "I know you would stay if you could". They tearfully hug and part ways. Tom returns to the trailer community, and Will returns to the woods. Later, Tom hangs a food package in the forest.
Cast
Production The film was directed by Debra Granik and written by Granik and Anne Rosellini, based on the 2009 novel My Abandonment by Peter Rock. The novel is loosely based on a true story.
Filming Principal photography took place during the spring of 2017 in Portland, Oregon. Eagle Fern Park in Clackamas County was used for the main forest scenes.
Soundtrack
Dickon Hinchliffe, formerly of Tindersticks, composed the film score, released digitally by Lakeshore Records. This is his second collaboration with Granik, after Winter's Bone.
Off-grid musician and former Dream Syndicate and Opal member Kendra Smith contributed the original song "Moon Boat" (her first solo recording since 1996), which plays over the end credits.
Oregon folk musicians Michael Hurley and Marisa Anderson have cameo performances in the film.
Release The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2018. Shortly after, Bleecker Street acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film. It was released on June 29, 2018.
Reception Critical response On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of based on 248 reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critical consensus reads, "Leave No Trace takes an effectively low-key approach to a potentially sensationalistic story — and further benefits from brilliant work by Ben Foster and Thomasin McKenzie." It is the most reviewed film to hold an approval rating of 100% on the site. On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 88 out of 100, based on 44 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".
Manohla Dargis of The New York Times wrote: "In its best moments, Leave No Trace invites you to simply be with its characters, to see and experience the world as they do. Empathy, the movie reminds you, is something that is too little asked of you either in life or in art. Both Mr. Foster’s and Ms. Harcourt McKenzie’s sensitive, tightly checked performances are critical in this regard." Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times called it "Fiercely involving in a way we're not used to, made with sensitivity and honesty by director/co-writer Debra Granik, it tells its emotional story of a father and daughter living dangerously off the grid in a way that is unnerving and uncompromising yet completely satisfying." The Guardian critic Peter Bradshaw praised the movie as being a deeply intelligent story of love and survival in the wild, and gave it a perfect score of 5 out of 5. Mark Kermode and former US President Barack Obama named Leave No Trace their favorite film of 2018.
Peter Debruge of Variety gave the film a mixed review: "There's a listless, almost meandering nature to the story. The film's conflict is clear – this is no way to raise a child, and allowed to continue in this fashion, Will risks both his life and Tom's – and yet there’s no sense of where the script is headed, and no urgency to its resolution."
Accolades Top ten lists
Leave No Trace was listed on numerous critics' top ten lists for 2018, among them:
1st - Mark Kermode, The Observer 1st - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times (tied with Black Panther) 2nd - Stephen Farber, The Hollywood Reporter 2nd - Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair 2nd - David Morgan, CBS News 2nd - Staff consensus, The Guardian 3rd - Jason Bailey, Flavorwire 4th - Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times 4th - Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian 4th - Sara Stewart, New York Post 5th - Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter 5th - David Sims, The Atlantic 5th - Lawrence Toppman, The Charlotte Observer 5th - Staff consensus, The Sydney Morning Herald 6th - Anita Katz, San Francisco Examiner 6th - John Frosch, The Hollywood Reporter 6th - Randy Myers, San Jose Mercury News 6th - Chris Wasser, Irish Independent 8th - Nicholas Barber, BBC Culture 8th - Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor 8th - Marc Doyle, Metacritic 8th - Caryn James, The Hollywood Reporter 9th - John Powers, Vogue 10th - David Edelstein, Vulture 10th - Josh Larsen, Filmspotting Top 10 (listed alphabetically) - Dana Stevens, Slate
Former President Barack Obama named the film one of his favorite movies of 2018.
Awards and nominations Award Date of ceremony Category Recipients Result Gotham Awards November 26, 2018 Best Actor Ben Foster Breakthrough Actor Thomasin McKenzie Detroit Film Critics Society December 3, 2018 Best Supporting Actress Thomasin McKenzie National Board of ReviewJanuary 8, 2019 Breakthrough Performance Thomasin McKenzie Top Ten Independent Films Leave No Trace Los Angeles Film Critics Association December 9, 2018 Best Director Debra Granik Best Actor Ben Foster Critics' Choice Movie Awards January 13, 2019 Best Young Performer Thomasin McKenzie Satellite Awards February 17, 2019 Best Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama Ben Foster Best Adapted Screenplay Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini Best Independent FilmLeave No Trace Independent Spirit Awards February 23, 2019 Best Feature Anne Harrison, Linda Reisman and Anne Rosellini Best Director Debra Granik Best Supporting Female Thomasin McKenzie San Diego Film Critics SocietyDecember 10, 2018 Best Picture Leave No Trace Breakthrough Artist Thomasin McKenzie Best Director Debra Granik USC Scripter Award February 9, 2019 Debra Granik, Anne Rosellini and Peter Rock
See also List of films with a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes
References
External links