Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie and Ben Foster in Leave No Trace (Bleecker Street)

Based on the novel My Abandonment by Peter Rock, which in turn is based on actual events, director Debra Granik sets everything up to be as minimalist as possible, with shots relishing in the vast greenery of Oregon’s beautiful parks—it’s as if the forests have remained untouched by the mucky claws of modern industry.

A father, Will (Ben Foster), and daughter Tom (Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie) live in the wilderness parklands outside of Portland, Oregon, in a desolate campsite. They depend on canned food and sleep in tarpaulin tents, and once in a while they venture into the city to reload on supplies. One fateful day, a jogger notices Tom in the woods, which sets off a chain of events that lead father and daughter unwillingly back into society.

Similar to Matt Ross’s Captain Fantastic, the characters in Leave No Trace yearn for a simple existence. Like Viggo Mortensen’s Ben, Will (played by a brilliantly and powerfully subdued Foster) adapts an almost purely Luddite philosophy, preferring to hover on the fringes of society, away from modernity in favor of the peace of the wild. But while Captain Fantastic leans more toward a reconciliation between these two ways of life, Leave No Trace edges toward tragedy and contradiction. In this sense, the film is certainly darker and much more open to interpretation than Captain Fantastic. Will is also a much more enigmatic figure, gravely haunted by a past that is only hinted at.

But what really sets the film apart is its towering lead performances by Foster and especially the young New Zealand actress McKenzie. The two render what could be an emotionally distant and potentially naive story into a deeply character-driven and contemplative one. Its tragedy lies in the eyes and silence of Will and Tom, especially when they come to the realization that each may have a different conception of home.

Like Foster, McKenzie’s performance is astonishingly subdued, her wide eyes and soft-spoken voice contrasting with a simultaneous confidence, self-awareness, and intelligence that seem almost prodigious. Foster and McKenzie have made for a truly strong dynamic, and their bond is so achingly real that expositional dialogue between the two seems almost superfluous.

While most parent-child/mentor-student stories portray the young as helpless and possibly a victim, Granik refuses to patronize. Tom is socially awkward, but she is far from helpless. She is, in fact, a fully fleshed agent of change. She does not need her father any more than he needs her. Hence, what the film deals with is less about the conflict between the father’s archaic ways and the daughter’s more modern ones but about two individuals whose love for one another may not be enough to transcend the paths they want to choose for themselves.