Tracks

Warning, there will be minor spoilers in this review. Nothing earth shattering, but you have been warned.




Do you see the poster above here? Do you see how empty and devoid of...anything it is? It used to say "TRACKS" and "Leave everything behind" and "Coming soon" but I painted over all that. I usually manipulate the Posters for the movies I review because I prefer a sleek and minimalist approach when it comes to art, and to some extent movies (Exception; all action movies. The more the merrier). When I first saw some clips and pictures from Tracks, I was awestruck. The solemn traveler in an endless sea of sand. The hollow beauty of the desert and the stripped down (Oh yeah) and honest portrayal of a alone human being.

For me this movie was the best movie I had ever seen, and that was before I had even seen it.


Fast forward to the 13:th of June (the Swedish premiere date). I am getting up and leaving the cinema and feeling so...empty, which would seem appropriate after watching this, but it is not a good empty. It is the "I spent two hours of my life and 17 $ (100 SEK) to watch... nothing" I felt like Bernard Black after watching Armapocalypse (somewhat obscure reference to Black Books, deal with it).

This was a movie devoid of everything. There was no plot, no suspense, almost no dialog and no nothing. All it were was Mia Wasikowska walking through the desert. You would guess that the annoying photographer following around the entire movie would add some excitement and spark some sort of character development, but instead he is used for sexual relief once and after that he turns himself in to a strung along man purse. THe only reason for him existing in the movie is to leave Water deposits along the route and then he serves no purpose. That may be fortunate though since Adam Driver is even more weird and annoying in this movie than in Girls.

traveling by foot across thousands of miles of sizzling hot, inhospitable and dry as fuck desert should be dangerous right? no, not according to Tracks. She doesn't run out of food until the last night, the man purse leaves water everywhere, there is one snake in the entire movie. Let me remind you that the movie takes place in Australia, the home of the most poisonous snake ever and the most amount of dangerous and poisonous animals ever (Don't quote me on that though) and she only runs in to one snake during a six month trip? Oh yeah, there is also this one Horny camel she has to scare away. They try to make it sound dangerous but all I saw was a horny camel frothing at the mouth.

The character Robyn Davidson never gets explored as well. You spend the majority of a two hour movie with one character and still you don't know jack shit about her at the end. So her mother died when she was eight and the first thing her father does is shoot her dog and send her of to live with her aunt. That was kind of sad, but we later learn that her relationship with her father is very good, so no damage done? Why does she feel alienated by everyone? Why does she hate being among people so much that she goes out into the Australian desert all alone without any real experience.

She starts out as a blank canvas, and at the end of the movie she is still pretty blank. Someone spilled some backstory onto her but not much.

Ultimately, Tracks is not a horrible picture. It's not particularly good, but it has some beautiful landscape scenes and Wasikowska does well with what she got. I wasn't even going to write this review at first, mainly because there is so little to say about it, but I felt I had to say what little there was to say...There is so little to say I am actually trying to fill the page with the word SAY.

All in all a pretty boring movie that could have been way better. Although, it teaches us one important lesson about film making. Just because the story was good in real life doesn't mean it will make a good film. Films, unlike real life needs more or less constant excitement. If that comes in the shape of explosions, dramatic speeches, gut wrenching horror or tear jerking fare wells, doesn't matter. as long as something happens on screen it is good. A movie where more than half the time is spent watching a woman walk slowly forward is not exciting. It is not good acting (I can walk on film, try me) and it is not a "gorgeously rendered adventure saga" (actual quote from Variety film critic Justin Chang).