Leave No Trace

Leave No Trace, is a quiet, contemplative, but occasionally powerful film about what it means to be an individual in today's world--must one conform, and be part of society?

Ben Foster plays a veteran with severe PTSD. We are led to believe that he has raised his teenage daughter (Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie) from a small child living together off the grid in a public forest in Oregon. They are not strictly living off the land, as he gets veterans benefits with which they buy groceries (and he sells the pills he gets), but they have little contact with other people and completely rely on themselves.

Problem is, you can't live on public land. They are eventually evicted from their little camp and put into the hands of social services, who find them a small house on the land of a Christmas tree farmer. Foster can't take it, but McKenzie's not so against having a roof over her head and makes friends with a boy who raises rabbits. But soon Foster bolts, taking her with her, and they escape into the woods of Washington.

They find an abandoned cabin, but Foster is injured and they find a small community of outsiders in a remote RV park. McKenzie really likes living there, and tries to persuade her father to stay, but he can't. They face the inevitable--they must part ways.

Much of this film is similar to Captain Fantastic, about another man who raises his children off the grid but must learn to set them free, and in a more abstract way to Running On Empty, about a family of fugitives. They all come to the conclusion that there is a right time to let one's children go, and though it is difficult for the parent to do so, it's the only reasonable decision.

Leave No Trace was written and directed by Deborah Granik, who also wrote and directed Winter's Bone. This film doesn't have big, hysterical moments, but instead the conflicts are resolved peaceably. The acting by Foster, who has chewed scenery in other films, and McKenzie is subtle and affecting.