Rotten Tomatoes can often be a hard crowd to please. Some movies get great critic reviews and horrible audience reviews, and of course, versa. What would it take to get an almost perfect rating and be the best-reviewed movie in Rotten Tomatoes history?
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Leave No Trace tells the story of Will (played by Ben Foster) and his thirteen-year-old daughter Tom (Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie), who have been living off the grid in the forests of Portland, Oregon, for many years. Battling his own demons as a returned veteran, Living on their stretch of illegal national parkland has suited them well until they are found by the park police and forced to leave.
Forced to return to society, Tom makes friends and adapts well to life in the “real” world, while Will struggles with people and can’t quite acclimate. Finding a chance to escape, the two disappear again, trying to find their little slice of peace and paradise, but nothing goes to plan.
The story is harrowing and beautiful, sharing what veterans experience when they return from war, the terrifying reality of integrating society when you have been apart for so long, and how children grow up and need to make their own decisions.
Leave No Trace is written by Anne Rosellini, Debra Granik and Peter Rock, based on the novel My Abandonment by Peter Rock. The film is also directed by Debra Granik, who has been praised for the success of her film. She and the star-studded cast, including Alyssa McKay, Ben Foster, Dana Millican, Derek John Drescher, Jeff Kober, Michael J. Prosser, Ryan Joiner, and of course, Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie, brought the movie to life.
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With a 7.1/10 rating on IMDb and a score 88 on TV Guide, one would think that Leave No Trace would have favourable reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. Still, the truth is a bit more staggering than favourable. Not only is Leave No Trace the best-reviewed movie in Rotten Tomatoes history, but it also has a perfect 100% critic rating and a 79% audience rating.
Suppose you are curious about what critics are saying about the movie. In that case, the consensus is that “Leave No Trace takes an effectively low-key approach to a potentially sensationalistic story – and further benefits from brilliant work by Ben Foster and Thomasin McKenzie.”
Critics zeroed in on the director’s ability to focus on the humanity of the characters they had created while creating them so that it is impossible to judge them for their humanity.
One of the best reviews left on Rotten Tomatoes was by Robert Daniels from 812filmreviews, which reads, “Leave No Trace, in the biggest of ironies, leaves the greatest of traces upon us.”
Unfortunately, if you want to watch Leave No Trace, the 4th of July was your last chance on Netflix. However, it is still available to buy or rent on platforms like Amazon Instant Video, Google Play, iTunes, and Vudu.
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