Tracks is a great story but John Curran’s film Tracks is not
THE new Australian film Tracks is a pointed example of how a great true story doesn’t always make for truly good cinema.
Director: John Curran (Praise)
Starring: Mia Wasikowska, Adam Driver, Roly Mintuma, John Flaus
Hard walk is hard work
“I was at home nowhere,” states the ponderous narration that opens Tracks .
It isn’t long before this disappointingly dull Australian production is making itself right at home … nowhere.
Here is a pointed example of how a great true story doesn’t always make for truly good cinema.
This is a wistful, yet wilfully self-important account of adventurer Robyn Davidson’s epic trek across the outback in 1975. As later chronicled in her international bestseller, Davidson (played by Mia Wasikowska) walked all the way from Alice Springs to the West Australian coast.
MIA WASIKOWSKA STARS AS ROBYN DAVISON IN FILM OF HER BOOK
MIA WASIKOWSKA’S RECREATS ROBYN DAVIDSON’S JOURNEY FOR FILM
For much of the marathon stroll, Davidson had only four ugly camels and one cute dog to keep her company.
Little of note or urgency — at least not in terms of events that will have viewers gripping the sides of the seats — happens along the way.
There’s a quasi-ambush by a gaggle of feral camels, soon repelled with a few blasts of a shotgun.
The pooch eats something it shouldn’t have.
Davidson gets on the wrong side of some Aboriginal elders, then is shown the right way across some tricky terrain by a delightful old tracker named Eddie (Roly Mintuma).
Occasionally, a perpetually griping Davidson must pose for a pesky American photographer (Adam Driver), whose employers are sponsoring the expedition.
That’s about all there is to Tracks.
A weak script struggles to find any discernible motivation for Davidson’s quest, aside from the fact she was a bit of a rebel, a bit of a loner and a bit of a grump.
That’s just not enough for an uncharacteristically tentative Wasikowska to work with here.
That Tracks elects to take a very slow, very scenic route might appeal to those with the time and inclination for some aimless rubber necking.
Other vaguely interested parties should wait for the home video release later in the year. That fast-forward button on the remote will come in mighty handy.
