Review: Tracks

City Paper grade: C

For a film about a solitary trek through one of the world’s most arid and lonely expanses, Tracks sure feels crowded. John Curran’s biopic tells the story of Robyn Davidson, an Australian woman who is determined to walk across the 1,700-mile Australian desert accompanied only by supply-bearing camels and her faithful dog. The inspiring story was funded and documented by National Geographic in a 1978 article, and later Davidson expanded it into a book. The occasional rendezvous with Geographic photographer Rick Smolan became her one concession to companionship during the long journey. Mia Wasikowska ably captures the contrasting emotions of Davidson’s discomfort around her fellow humans and her liberating ease when cut off from the rest of the world. But Curran, apparently fearing that audiences would quickly tire of sand, sun and camels, hurries Wasikowska from one encounter to another. Wasikowska is at her best when Curran lets her wordlessly express Davidson’s inner quest. Smolan, played by Adam Driver, is almost a second puppy on the trip. Davidson’s by turns frustrated by and attracted to him, never quite clear — or, likely, certain— whether their sexual relationship is emotional or purely functional. Curran’s emphasis on that aspect of the expedition is indicative of his compulsion to psychoanalyze Davidson and her motives. Much is made of the loss of her mother, but it’s an explanation that seems both insufficient and imposed, a condescending assumption that there must be something wrong with someone attempting to assert their independence.