Leave No Trace Takes an Unflinching Look at a Military Family in Flux

The road veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder face when they return home from war without stable health care and housing can be winding and difficult  — as treacherous taking on the Appalachian Trail alone with inadequate supplies. 

Conversations about the difficult circumstances veterans face are often left out of the political maelstrom that swirls in the era of Trumpism. Long lines at the VA and inadequate mental and physical health care can lead to drug abuse, homelessness and domestic violence. Leave No Trace, the newest film from Winter's Bone writer-director Debra Granik, heads into the margins of our society where too many of these former service members languish without the resources they need to heal. 

Veteran Will (a tender Ben Foster, returning to the world of the troubled soldier after his superb turn in Oren Moverman’s The Messenger) and his daughter Tom (Thomasin McKenzie in a breakout performance) have found a peaceful existence hidden away in an Oregon park, but their solace is short-lived. The authorities make Will and Tom vacate the premises, and well-meaning but complex bureaucracy comes into play. Will struggles to acclimate to everyday life and employment, and Tom yearns to connect with a community larger than what her father might be able to cope with. 

Granik has proven skilled at threading social issues into her meditative character studies. In the lauded aforementioned Winter’s Bone, a young girl (Jennifer Lawrence in her career-making role) relied on her strengths to maneuver poverty and the pitfalls of the Ozarks. Here, Tom must take the lessons her father has taught her, along with her natural goodwill and smarts, and help her loving but struggling dad find what’s best for them both in a world with few options for either. Granik is a wonderful steward for strong young women facing difficult odds, and for solemn, suffering men who need to accept their limitations and vulnerabilities. Timeless values that feel particularly timely. 

Leave No Trace is a slow burn, and carefully constructed; the performances are measured and calm. There’s no need to overplay the drama — the circumstances presented here are serious enough as they are. Granik’s as unique and vital a voice in American filmmaking as we’ve got. In Leave No Trace, she’s not afraid to tell the truth, to let often-overlooked humans be heroes and to allow our heroes to be human.