Tracks

Tracks begins with a quote from Robyn Davidson (the subject and main character of the film) on the nature of nomads. You don't know it at first, but this quote is a great foreshadowing about, what I think anyway, her feelings toward people as well as places.

In the late 1970s, Robin Davidson (Mia Wasikowska) decides to make an overland trek from Alice Springs to the Indian Ocean. To help her on the journey, Robyn acquires three camels, that will help carry supplies. She gets funded by National Geographic, who insist that photographer Rick Smolan (Adam Driver) occasionally takes photos of her on the journey.

Wasikowska (Alice in Wonderland) is normally a good actress with a strong emotional range, but I felt as though she was very passive in this film. There are a lot of blank stares off into the desert, but I couldn't read any emotion into them. The only time I felt convinced by her performance was when she was confronted by big groups of people and showed obvious discomfort.

Adam Driver's (Inside Llewyn Davis) character had a very interesting arc, having started off as an American uncomfortable with the outback and always taking pictures when he should be helping to showing respect for Davidson's discomfort at being on camera.

I felt that the explanation that bookended the film was overkill. It did help to explain the history of the film but it told me the same things at the start and end. The ending came a little anticlimactically for me as well.

Verdict: A visually spectacular film with an interesting story but not something to get too excited about.