Tracks (2014)

Mia Wasikowska takes the walk of
a lifetime in "Tracks."

“Tracks” tells the compelling true story of Robyn Davidson's famous 1,700-mile hike across the Australian desert in 1977. The 27-year-old writer headed south, accompanied by a dog and four camels, from Alice Springs in the central part of the continent and finished—nine-months later—at the edge of the Indian Ocean.

The movie, directed by John Curran, is evocative of “Maidentrip,” the excellent chronicle of teenage mariner Laura Dekker and her courageous, grueling, nearly two-year long solo circumnavigation of the globe by sailboat. Both films are inspiring tales of grand, physical adventures by smart, capable, fiercely independent young women.

Mia Wasikowska plays the introspective Davidson, whose travels are largely motivated by disillusionment with the world and the pain of her childhood. Growing up, she lost her mother to suicide; subsequently, her father, rather than taking over parental duties, banished her to live with a relative. At times during her journey, she is haunted by memories of grief and loss. In a way, her solitary quest seems like a response to her own deep feelings of isolation and abandonment.

Before departing on her trip, she helps on a ranch and negotiates acquiring camels as part of her pay, learning to gain the trust, work alongside, and care for the huge animals she’ll need to carry essentials. As news of her trek across the desert of Southern Australia spreads, curious outsiders begin to call her the Camel Lady. Diggity, a bubbly black lab, is her most faithful companion—and expressive enough to be a supporting character—staying by her side and even using its nose to find the way when she becomes lost.

National Geographic agreed to sponsor Davidson’s trip; consequently, the other key character in the film is Rick Smolan (Adam Driver), a bespectacled photojournalist sent from the magazine to cover the story and snap pictures along the route every month or so. Robyn often finds Rick’s presence intrusive, but the two become friends and even have a surprising, brief sexual encounter one night—an episode that, particularly for Robyn, seems driven more by a physical need than any emotional feeling.

The National Geographic essay that Davidson would eventually write became part of the record of her trip—newspaper articles and finally her own memoir which “Tracks” is based on were others—that led to an unexpected and, at least initially, uncomfortable celebrity. The irony of the movie is that for all of the interest it captures and publicity it spawns, Davidson’s epic sojourn seems far less about attention-seeking than about the author’s own search to quell demons at once very private and deeply personal.