Tracks, John Curran’s new film about Robyn Davidson’s true-life ambitious trek across 1,700 miles of Australian desert, is sunburned and blistered, all cracking skin and dehydrated features.
Mia Wasikowska plays the 26-year-old Davidson with grace and determination. The 1977 journey, undertaken by the adventurer, four steadfast camels, and her dog Diggity, was a nine-month test of willfulness, which Davidson later chronicled for National Geographic, followed by an international best-seller by the same name. Her story has run in some rarefied circles—Doris Lessing and Salman Rushdie are two notables that have shed light on Davidson's monumental trek—and now, Wasikowska’s performance of this immense character will flicker beautifully as time passes.
Like the camels, the actress as Robyn displays a movement that is both bedraggled and strong: the trudge. Her limbs aren’t quite as gawky as the burdened companions, but they possess a nimble awkwardness, if there could be such a thing. Without personifying them or anthropomorphizing, Curran, the director behind The Painted Veil and We Don't Live Here Anymore, does amazing work to reveal the intricacies of their charming camel personalities. Dogs are easy to love on screen; it is much more work to gain affection for a camel. Yet, attachments grow and the film starts to show the comfort of their low-burbling hums.
In addition to the strength of the journey, the most powerful feeling that Wasikowska conveys is Davidson’s devotion to finding lonesomeness and her endeavors for privacy. The escape is her bliss; in the desert there are no other people, and therefore “no more conundrums, no one needing you to be one thing or another,” as her character describes. In aloneness, there is freedom.
An exclusive preview scene from Tracks, featuring Mia Wasikowska and Adam Driver.
The greatest tension, therefore, is not the lonely expanse of the baking desert (so bad that a camel refuses to walk on it) or the difficulty of the trip’s length, but rather the threats to privacy. The obstacles are the reporters, journalists, and bystanders who invade her space. Some are rude, some are clueless, but one in particular was helpful and devoted. The comic relief of Tracks is Adam Driver—in short-shorts and goofy '70s facial hair—as celebrated photographer Rick Smolan, who documented part of Davidson's journey beautifully for National Geographic. He travels with her side-by-side, goading her to give him a “tiny smile” and she scolds him about honest journalism. He also drives 1,000 miles out of his way to drop water drums for her, and tries to protect her from the rest of the press.
Davidson’s confrontation of people is the most tense and powerful p
Mia Wasikowska plays the 26-year-old Davidson with grace and determination. The 1977 journey, undertaken by the adventurer, four steadfast camels, and her dog Diggity, was a nine-month test of willfulness, which Davidson later chronicled for National Geographic, followed by an international best-seller by the same name. Her story has run in some rarefied circles—Doris Lessing and Salman Rushdie are two notables that have shed light on Davidson's monumental trek—and now, Wasikowska’s performance of this immense character will flicker beautifully as time passes.
Like the camels, the actress as Robyn displays a movement that is both bedraggled and strong: the trudge. Her limbs aren’t quite as gawky as the burdened companions, but they possess a nimble awkwardness, if there could be such a thing. Without personifying them or anthropomorphizing, Curran, the director behind The Painted Veil and We Don't Live Here Anymore, does amazing work to reveal the intricacies of their charming camel personalities. Dogs are easy to love on screen; it is much more work to gain affection for a camel. Yet, attachments grow and the film starts to show the comfort of their low-burbling hums.
In addition to the strength of the journey, the most powerful feeling that Wasikowska conveys is Davidson’s devotion to finding lonesomeness and her endeavors for privacy. The escape is her bliss; in the desert there are no other people, and therefore “no more conundrums, no one needing you to be one thing or another,” as her character describes. In aloneness, there is freedom.
An exclusive preview scene from Tracks, featuring Mia Wasikowska and Adam Driver.
Davidson’s confrontation of people is the most tense and powerful p