The actor I like is very good at acting, but his reputation is always tepid, which is really a worrying thing. Ben Foster is such a person.
When I learned that he collaborated with director Debra Granick on "Leave No Trace", I was thinking: It's probably another movie of "bitterness and hatred". After all, the director's "Winter's Bone" is still vivid in his mind, and Ben Foster has always liked serious dramas.
The movie was adapted from Peter Rock's novel "My Abandonment", so I bought the original book to read, and as expected, I felt very depressed after reading it.
Fortunately, the plot and ending of "Leave No Trace" have been adapted on the basis of the original work, which is barely acceptable. (Really! If you haven't read the novel, don't read it.)
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The film unfolds with a documentary-style narrative. It tells the story of Will, a father who suffers from PTSD. Because he can't bear the psychological pressure brought by the city, he chooses to live in a forest park with his thirteen-year-old daughter Tom.
Every once in a while, they would go out of the forest and make some daily purchases with the money from Will's medicine for his illness.
An accidental encounter, Tom exposed his whereabouts. Their lives were also disrupted by the police who came to search, and they were forced to move out of the forest and live in a sheltered house...
-----Spoilers end here-----
There isn't much dialogue in "Leave No Trace," but it doesn't affect the look and feel of the film. Will and Tom live in harmony with each other, and they look very comfortable and coordinated against the background of the large green forest overflowing the screen. Pair it with the song "The Maze" by the Manchester Orchestra, and it's inexplicably shedding tears.
Touched by touching, to a certain extent, Will was a little selfish. Because he didn't like the city, he took his daughter and fled into the forest. Of course, he also loves his daughter very much. Even in the face of a difficult environment, he is still strict with his daughter, counseling and educating her from all aspects.
From his father, Tom learned a lot of skills to survive in the jungle. For example, use solar energy to bake mushrooms, squeeze out dew from moss to quench thirst, how to hide one's own position, how to cover up one's whereabouts...
Coincidentally, the original English name of "Leave No Trace" is "Leave No Trace", and its original meaning is also a kind of proposition of "no trace mountain forest", which means camping in the forest and keeping the original appearance of the forest when leaving, as if there is no trace. Same here.
In terms of knowledge, Tom also did not fall behind. After being "rescued" by the police, Tom's test scores were actually higher than those of his peers. (In the novel, Tom is always reading an encyclopedia.)
There's a scene in the movie where Tom says his feet are cold, and Will doesn't hesitate to undress and put Tom's feet on his chest to keep warm. This also shows that he loves his daughter very much.
Even so, Tom was pitiful. As the female official said, school not only allows you to gain knowledge, but also exercise your social skills. What Tom lacks is communication with other people.
In the shelter, she saw two other girls doing Dream Board, but she didn't know anything about it. The female officer brought her a bicycle and slowly learned to ride under the guidance of her father. Still in love, I met a boy who had feelings.
Tom's heart is contradictory. She lives in a civilized society, but she has to follow in her father's footsteps. After tasting the taste of comfortable life, this contradiction has become more prominent. One side is the attachment to his father, the other side is the world of flowers, and his heart is almost torn in half.
Of course, Will's heart is also contradictory. For modern civilization, it is simply a kind of ordeal.
When I took the psychological test, I was very nervous; I was restless in the new house, and would hide the TV in the cabinet; I couldn’t sleep at night, and I often had nightmares; I was not used to the four walls and ceilings, and I dragged my daughter to camp in the yard…
The seemingly loving behavior of the officials and donors in "Leave No Trace" is cruel to Will, a kind of cruelty. Since he does not understand his inner world, what he has done seems to be very futile, and the person who is benevolent will not be grateful for it.
Just like "Easy Rider", "Survival in the Wilderness", and "Captain Fantastic", these "outsiders" in the eyes of normal people have got rid of the shackles of conformity, rejected the comfortable life in the traditional sense, and wanted to rely on their own wisdom to go with the flow, but Also become a "weird" in the eyes of others.
There are three kinds of animals in the movie: spiders, seahorses, and bees.
From the solitary spider at the beginning to the gregarious bee at the end, Tom has truly made his own choices. Although he parted ways with his father, the seahorse necklace hanging around his neck also heralds an eternal bond. After all, his father once raised him alone like a seahorse.
Will takes it for granted that as long as they hide in the woods together, the "devil" will be kept out. But he forgot that Tom is also growing up slowly and will choose the path he wants to go.
Finally, a quote from Will to his daughter in the novel - "To be great is to keep sweetness."
Off topic:
The female director's plot in dealing with feelings is really very delicate. I recommend Julie Portucelli's "The Tree", Sofia Coppola's "Somewhere", and Shauna Auerbach's "Father". Rankie, My Love.
The director's previous "Winter's Bone" earned Jennifer Lawrence an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, and many people called Thomasin McKenzie, who played Tom in the film, Lawrence second.
Another thing I have to mention is that the male protagonist Ben Foster has always felt that he should have been popular. In an interview, the host also said that he hoped that he would act in more romance films and the like, so as to open up a little market.
It's a pity that his next "Galveston" is actually a crime film.
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