Tracks 2013

Mary Corliss, TIME Magazine: John Curran's film, starring Mia Wasikowska, captures the ravishing emptiness of the landscape and the elemental perils facing a strong young woman. Read more

Sara Stewart, New York Post: I found the sprawling, wild visuals in "Tracks," and the long silences as the sunburned Robyn traverses some of the world's least hospitable lands, meditative and moving. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: When it finally ended, I felt like I had traveled the distance in the next sleeping bag. It's exhausting but exhilarating. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Although I haven't read the book, the movie makes me want to do so by quoting judiciously from what is obviously distinctive writing. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: What emerges here is a woman of remarkable strength, and a movie that doesn't sugarcoat the dark side of her journey ... Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: Mia Wasikowska gives a fine, flinty performance in this beautifully rendered adaptation of Robyn Davidson's international bestseller. Read more

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, AV Club: Davidson's journey appears meaningless, little more than a succession of pretty vistas for the dirt-caked trekker to squint at while having flashbacks of her childhood. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: The dry sand, the swirling wind, the striking sight of Davidson framed against the enormous expanse - all draw us in and don't let us go. Read more

Peter Keough, Boston Globe: [Curran] presents a vision of nature that shimmers with uncanny beauty and eerie solitude, transcended by Mia Wasikowska in one of the best performances of the year. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Ultimately the movie mimics the trajectory of the quest itself, pulling one toward its final destination, but across an arid expanse. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: More than a travelogue or a chronicle of self-willed solitude, director John Curran's gorgeous film version starring Mia Wasikowska betrays hardly a trace of Hollywood machinery in the storytelling. Read more

Cary Darling, Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com: Director John Curran has a sense for visual grandeur. The landscape is ablaze with heat, dust, flies and a staggering loneliness. When a snake slithers across Davidson as she sleeps, you can almost feel its cold against the skin. Read more

Melissa Maerz, Entertainment Weekly: Like Davidson herself, this lush adaptation from director John Curran (The Painted Veil) is remarkable for accomplishing so much with so little. Read more

William Goss, Film.com: Alternately beautiful and dull, which arguably makes it a faithful encapsulation of the adventure itself. Read more

David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter: A journey of arduous physical challenges and incalculable spiritual rewards is evocatively rendered in this superb adaptation. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: The desert trek in "Tracks" is as brutal as it is beautiful; the performance by Mia Wasikowska as raw as the reality. And the camels? If they don't steal your heart it must be stone-hinged. Read more

Rafer Guzman, Newsday: Curran's dreamy, semisurreal visuals, along with Mandy Walker's shimmering cinematography and Garth Stevenson's fluid score, help us see the world through Davidson's eyes. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: The memoir is strongly written, and I wish that the movie, directed by John Curran (Marion Nelson did the adaptation), had more excitement to it. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: The story of a singular, go-it-alone young woman who's happiest away from people, and in the company of animals. Read more

Ella Taylor, NPR: Screenwriter Marion Nelson's overly expository dialogue reduces Robyn to an explorer-type daddy's girl we've met before, trudging diligently through the heat and dust, throwing off cliches. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Wasikowska makes for excellent company. We watch her mature from idealistic dreamer to a weary, hard-worn adventurer. Read more

Manohla Dargis, New York Times: Despite the otherworldly scenery and some predictable tragedy - Robyn can be maddeningly careless about the welfare of her animals - this proves to be a rather logy amble. Read more

Jake Coyle, Associated Press: Rarely has there been a more affecting portrait of a girl and her pup. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: Wasikowska plays this wordless wanderer just right. That is, she makes her real. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Tracks is an exhilarating adventure that opens up an unknown world to most of us and does it so well that we feel we're living it too. Read more

Kristin Tillotson, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Wasikowska here embodies Davidson with a mix of maniacal idealism and childish stubbornness that makes it seem her chin is perpetually stuck out at the world. Read more

Jon Frosch, The Atlantic: The film is lovely to look at, with cleanly framed, golden-hued widescreen images of desert scenery so evocative you practically taste the dust. It's also a bit dull. Read more

Kiva Reardon, Globe and Mail: The film is 112 minutes, but feels as long and as arduous as Davidson's real-life trek. Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: Mia Wasikowska plays Australian Robyn Davidson, a loner who makes Greta Garbo look like an extrovert, in John Curran's beautifully lensed dramatic recreation of Davidson's 2,700-kilometre trek across the Aussie desert in 1977. Read more

Cath Clarke, Time Out: Mia Wasikowska gives an unflashy, moving performance. As the months pass, her skin burned and peeling, she begins to look like the blistered Australian landscape. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: A riveting adventure, as well as a dreamy meditative saga. Read more

Zachary Wigon, Village Voice: Primarily a striking sensory relation of the sounds, smells, and feel of dragging oneself through an endless stretch of terrain not designed for human comfort. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: In the end, the point of this ridiculous, arduous, oft-interrupted odyssey turns out to be elusive-and is all the richer for it. Read more

Stephanie Merry, Washington Post: It all looks appropriately unglamorous, with Wasikowska wearing a layer of grime, her hair matted as she swats at ever-present flies. But the setting is spectacular. Read more