An excerpt from my script review for Leave No Trace which will be available 11/12/18:
2.) Plot Stability
Episodic.
That’s a term I’ve not used in a long time. A long time.
Continuing what I said above, it was very much in the vein of The Road in that we were just following along as things happened to this man and his child.
And things did happen to them, but there were never any consequences to their actions.
They did stuff. We watched.
Things happened to them. We watched some more.
They did other things that may or may not have been reactions to what happened to them.
We watched and either enjoyed it or didn’t.
Now I’m not exactly arguing this is bad, especially if it’s entertaining, but I don’t believe this script deserves any sort of extra credit or ridiculous praise due to its unconventional style.
Another thought I had while reading was that Will and Tom were almost the exact opposite of the mother and son in Room.
Aside from the routine rape, Will would probably enjoy living in a vacuum where he’s free from the outside world.
Moving away from the main plot, I’m more intrigued by the notion conjured with the title that is never really touched upon.
Leave no trace.
Apparently that’s a trademarked style of camping with 7 core principles.
That ecological idea of the script was interesting to me, especially since I lived a portion of my life in the Pacific Northwest, and realize there are folks who choose to be homeless in that area living as Will and Tom did.
What do they eat?
How often do they move around to avoid detection?
Is it possible to be truly self sustaining?
Part of me wondered what happened to Will to make him into this type of recluse, but I forgive that not being answered if the story had been a little deeper.
The goal to take away here though is to experiment with “taboo” styles that were frowned upon in the past.
See if you can’t get around them by entertaining the reader.
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