Published February 2, 2019
“Leave No Trace” is not a movie with many memorable one-liners. The film, which premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival, grabs you more with visuals, circumstances, emotions — and brilliant acting. It has a 100% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Here is Bleecker Street, the film distribution company that released “Leave No Trace,” with the backstory on how actual events triggered interest that eventually led to the making of the movie:
On May 20, 2004, The Oregonian reported how a father and daughter had been found living in Portland’s Forest Park. A month later, another story announced that the pair had disappeared. At the time, these stories mesmerized the city. Where had they gone? Who were they? These questions inspired novelist Peter Rock to write the book that would become the film Leave No Trace. Read the newspaper stories that started it all.
The film has received an impressive number of nominations and awards. Director Debra Granik and actors Ben Foster (Will) and Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie (Tom) deserve all of the accolades coming their way. I recommend reading some of the many terrific reviews and stories about “Leave No Trace,” because I won’t go into much detail here. Powerful subtexts include a veteran’s post-traumatic stress disorder, a dad raising a child in the woods — and society’s views on “unhoused” living.
All of that is context for a scene where Will and his daughter spend time with social services after being told it’s against the law for them to live on public land. The 13-year-old girl, Tom, is visiting with two girls who are in the care of social services, and they are trying to find out more about her.
“So, what are you doing here?” one of the girls asks.
“I wasn’t where I was supposed to be, so they took me away,” Tom says before clarifying her answer. “Oh — they don’t think I was where I was supposed to be.”
“OK, where were you?”
“With my dad, in the park.”
“So you were homeless, then.”
“No.”
“Why else would you be living in the woods?”
Tom doesn’t respond, and she’s further challenged about her explanation.
“OK, if you had a home, they wouldn’t have brought you here.”
Well, they just don’t understand that it was my home.”
Without adding further details about the movie, I will simply say that it was a powerful comment about how a place — or a circumstance, or a relationship, or a decision — that can feel like home to us isn’t always viewed the same way by others.
And despite a story and structure that don’t lend themselves to providing much in the way of standalone quotes, “Leave No Trace” is the best movie I’ve seen in months and belies its title by leaving a substantial part of itself with the viewer.