Tracks
Weinstein Company, The | Release Date: September 19, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
78
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 34 Critic Reviews
Positive:
27
Mixed:
7
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleThomas LeeSep 25, 2014
That Robyn succeeds reaching her geographic destination is hardly a surprise. But this movie is not driven by plot but rather the delicate emotional ballet performed so expertly by Wasikowska. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeySep 18, 2014
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 full review
100
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternSep 18, 2014
The best part of Tracks — aside from the spectacular images, the succinct dialogue, the elegant filmmaking and the mysterious beauty of Mia Wasikowska's performance — is what's left unsaid. Read full review
100
Entertainment WeeklyMelissa MaerzSep 10, 2014
What's on screen will leave you in a state of wonder. The sweeping cinematography surveys the cracked earth and Davidson's chapped skin with equal intensity, as if to remind us how vulnerable we puny mortals are. Read full review
100
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyDec 5, 2013
Alternately haunting, inspiring and dreamily meditative, this is a visually majestic film of transfixing moods and textures. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinSep 18, 2014
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 full review
90
VarietyJustin ChangDec 5, 2013
Anchored by a fine and flinty performance from Mia Wasikowska, director John Curran’s gorgeously rendered adventure saga succeeds not only in capturing the harshness and wild beauty of Davidson’s journey, but also in mapping a delicate interior pathway into the heart of this most atypical explorer. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaOct 3, 2014
Even with a voice-over narration, and conversations with her dog, Robyn's nomadic quest is full of grand silences, all the better to take in the sky, the rocks, the world spinning underfoot. Wasikowska plays this wordless wanderer just right. That is, she makes her real. Read full review
88
Washington PostStephanie MerrySep 25, 2014
For all its simplicity, Tracks the movie is a poignant, deeply emotional story. Read full review
88
Boston GlobePeter KeoughSep 25, 2014
Add to those John Curran’s adaptation of Robyn Davidson’s autobiographical book “Tracks.” In it he 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 full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsSep 25, 2014
Wasikowska is wonderful here, unaffected and affecting, but then she has long been a young actress conveying a rich and shadowy interior life on screen. She humanized the Tim Burton "Alice in Wonderland," so clearly she can do nearly anything. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennySep 19, 2014
Whatever your movie plans, you miss Tracks at your aesthetic pleasure peril. It’s a truly outstanding cinema experience. Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia PuigSep 18, 2014
Though dialogue is kept to a minimum, the deeply felt, complex performance by Mia Wasikowska and the assured direction of John Curran render the film — based on a true story — a riveting adventure, as well as a dreamy meditative saga. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianJeff BakerOct 3, 2014
Director John Curran is an American who has spent much of his career in Australia. I admired his movie "The Painted Veil" and think he captured the essence of Davidson's journey of discovery in Tracks. Read full review
83
HitfixGuy LodgeSep 18, 2014
With the Outback desert a pretty indomitable (not to mention indomitably pretty) presence from the outset, Tracks seems a woman-versus-land story only until it emerges that the land is a reflection of the woman herself. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzSep 25, 2014
Ultimately it's Wasikowska's performance that captivates. It's oddly compelling — she doesn't say much, and what she does say is usually off-putting. But there is a fierceness in her eyes as she walks, a determination that almost dares you to look away. Read full review
80
Village VoiceZachary WigonSep 16, 2014
The film’s strength derives from how Wasikowska makes Davidson’s seemingly suicidal wanderlust relatable. Read full review
80
Time Out LondonCath ClarkeApr 23, 2014
Tracks might be a bit slow for some, but it’s one of those films that quietly creeps up on you. Read full review
80
EmpireIan NathanApr 21, 2014
However familiar the terrain, this is a vivid, heartbreaking and captivating character piece and travel movie in one, guided by an outstanding Wasikowska. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinDec 5, 2013
This is a simple and beautiful journey undertaken purely for its own sake, and approached in that spirit, Tracks will lead you to a place of quiet wonder. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversSep 18, 2014
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 full review
75
ObserverRex ReedSep 17, 2014
When it finally ended, I felt like I had traveled the distance in the next sleeping bag. It’s exhausting but exhilarating. Read full review
75
New York PostSara StewartSep 17, 2014
Curran (“The Painted Veil”) never imposes any additional structure on Davidson’s story, which may test the patience of some viewers. But 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 full review
75
The PlaylistOliver LytteltonDec 5, 2013
The film’s undoubtedly a gorgeous look at the Australian outback, but those looking for deeper nourishment will be left a touch disappointed. Read full review
73
Film.comWilliam GossDec 5, 2013
While hardly insightful as a character study, Tracks can’t help but flourish as an Aussie travelogue, with cinematographer Mandy Walker doing justice to these vast and harsh environments. Read full review
67
IndieWireEric KohnDec 5, 2013
Singled-handedly carrying the story to its inevitable conclusion, [Wasikowska] gives Tracks a level of depth that nothing else in the movie can provide. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineDavid Lee DallasSep 15, 2014
The feminist bent of Robyn's quest nicely shadows the film without ever being stated aloud. Read full review
60
The New YorkerDavid DenbySep 22, 2014
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 full review
60
The New York TimesManohla DargisSep 18, 2014
As it turns out, nothing else in Tracks matches the dramatic pow of a camel being relieved of his testes. 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 full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanSep 18, 2014
The scenery is stunning and the story compelling, but some viewers will find it easier to admire Tracks than to engage with this meditative tale of Robyn Davidson (played beautifully by Mia Wasikowska). Read full review
60
CineVueEl FranklApr 24, 2014
It's in Wasikowska's confident performance alone that it's more gratifying to acknowledge any motives. The Australian actress appears to come of age in by far her most assured role, every bit believable as a tough but introverted city girl making her way in her country's Outback Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenOct 1, 2014
To my mind, movies about watching nomads walk rank alongside movies about writers writing: The action is dull and endlessly repetitive, and most of the interesting stuff occurs in the mind’s interior. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskySep 21, 2014
Rendered in the over-polished, pre-packed prestige style of director John Curran (The Painted Veil, Stone), 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 full review
50
The DissolveScott TobiasSep 19, 2014
Without the landscape or the heroine expressing themselves particularly sharply, Tracks is just a taciturn young woman wandering through the desert for months. In other words, a slog. Read full review
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