What’s this then? Tracks, the new film based on the true story of how a 27-year-old woman trekked nearly 2,000 miles over the Australian desert.
Pretty impressive. By herself? Well she had some camels. And a dog. And a National Geographic photographer who met up with her a few times over the course of the nine-month journey. She met some pretty amazing people along the way too.
Wait so, who was this lady? Robyn Davidson. She wrote a pretty well-known book about her trek – also called Tracks. She carved a career out for herself as a writer afterwards and has ended up having a pretty amazing life studying indigenous tribes. Weirdly, she was also Salman Rushdie’s lover for some time in the ’80s.
So who’s in the film then? Mia Wasikowska, who we’re slowly starting to hold in J-Law status and Adam Driver, him out of* Girls.*
Oh cool! Really into Mia Wasikowska. Yep, and she’s incredible in this as the no-nonsense head strong Robyn.
So what are people saying? 'Alternately haunting, inspiring and dreamily meditative, this is a visually majestic film of transfixing moods and textures. Its stealth-like emotional charge is fuelled by unerring work from Mia Wasikowska, her affecting performance grounded in the fortitude and determination essential to such an undertaking, at the same time subtly keeping an open window to her character’s fragility.' – David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter
And what are we saying? It’s pretty inspiring as films go. When was the last time you looked up from your phone for long enough to notice how incredible the world around you is? Although the film is set nearly 40 years ago the whole concept of 'getting away from it all' has never seemed more timely. ‘I just want to be all by myself,’ Mia-as-Robyn says at one point in the film, echoing exactly our sentiments after a full day at work being bombarded by emails, dodging people on the morning commute before heading home to our several housemates for a night browsing thousands of peoples' opinions on Twitter. Obviously we didn’t head straight home and book a one-way ticket to Ayers Rock but it did give us a fresh perspective on the everday nitty gritty issues that we can very easily get caught up with in our lives.
Seeing Adam Driver as something else other than the weird Adam in Girls is pretty interesting too. He’s got his role as the nerdy and over-eager photographer Rick Smolan down pat but it’s Mia Wasikowska that really wowed us. Rick’s original pictures from the expedition are used in the credits and it’s clear just how spot on Mia’s portrayal of Robyn really is. All in all, it’s a beautiful film, shown both through the relationships Robyn builds along the way and through the stunning cinematography.
Go and see When you’ve got time to spend on your own afterwards to have a think. We headed straight to Westfield shopping centre and found ourselves in a veritable human soup. The contrast between that and the solitutde of the film definitely not ideal. Just a word of warning there.
Follow Jess on Twitter @jess_commons
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.