[Wade Hampton]

Once in a very great while a movie will come out that hasn't got a false note in it, where every performance is spot-on, and where every scene leads logically to the next but without anything being telegraphed.

Today I saw "Leave No Trace," about a father who's a veteran with PTSD who lives in a forest in a public park in Portland with his teenage daughter, and how their lives change when their campsite is discovered by the authorities. Ben Foster plays the father, which is part of the reason I saw the film in the first place: he's one of those actors who is superb in whatever film he's in, even when the movie itself doesn't measure up. But this film does.

The young woman who plays his daughter is a New Zealander who does the role with a flawless American accent - I was surprised when I heard her speaking in her own accent in an interview clip. Her name is Thomasin McKenzie, and she's terrific.

The other reason I was probably going to see the movie anyway is that it was directed by Deborah Granik, who also directed "Winter's Bone," which was an outstanding adaptation of the novel by Missouri author Daniel Woodrell. Granik filmed that movie in Forsyth, Missouri in the Ozarks, using mostly local people for most of the speaking parts (which also meant that their accents were correct and not the usual exaggerated Hollywood hillbilly accents.) There were four, maybe five professional actors in that film, and at times that was obvious, unfortunately.

"Winter's Bone" was a devastatingly effective movie nonetheless, in large part because of the strong (if dark) source material in Woodrell's novel, and also of course because of Jennifer Lawrence's and John Hawkes' Oscar-nominated performances.

But even though the subject matter in this new film is neither violent nor especially dark, it's equally compelling. Of the two, "Leave No Trace" is actually a more perfect film. It seems clear that Ms. Granik had more money to spend this time around, and there are no awkward amateur performances. Not everyone onscreen is a professional actor, but there's never a false note in this one.

Anyway, I strongly recommend it. I like the fact that the people working in social services are depicted as decent individuals trying their best to help, not as overbearing bureaucrats. I liked pretty much everything about this movie. The use of music in the film is very sparse, but effective when it is used, and there's a really good song sung over the final credits that was written and performed by a woman who lives off the grid in the Oregon woods herself, I learned in an interview with Ms. Granik.

It's a well-made film with some of the best minimalist acting I've ever seen, and it has a truth to it that is rarer than rare. I can't recommend it highly enough.


Wade Hampton Miller