'Leave No Trace' concerns a father and daughter living off the grid in the Oregon woods. Ben Foster is a veteran of Iraq or Afghanistan, he's traumatized and doesn't like people much so choses to live in the woods with his daughter Thomasin McKenize, both are just excellent in this. Foster's a good and adoring dad and his daughter loves him so when park rangers find them and turn them over to social services an effort is made by their case worker (Dana Millican) to keep them together. They set them up in a small house on a tree farm where Foster can work and McKenize can be enrolled in school, mostly for socialization purposes as testing shows that the father has educated the daughter well beyond her grade level. Foster however chaffs under the social structures and it becomes increasing clear he can only take 'a civilized life' for so long.
The film is directed by Debra Granik who made a star out of Jennifer Lawrence in 'Winters Bone' As a director she is great with evoking a sense of place, 'Bone' is very much the Ozarks while 'Trace' evokes the ethos of parts of the Pacific Northwest, from the well funded social services, to a kind of hippy church our leads briefly attend. I really found this moving, it's just a beautiful movie and I highly recommend. Though slowly paced the story and actors performances are so involving that I was never bored. Based on a true story. ****
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