Tracks

(M) ★★★★

Director: John Curran.

Cast: Mia Wasikowska, Adam Driver, Roly Mintuma, John Flaus.

"Just takin' my camels for a walk."

Anyone who has travelled through Australia's red centre will know it's a journey that is repetitive, sporadically dull, and seemingly endless.

It's also a trip that has to be seen to be believed, thanks to a beautifully alien landscape that is intriguing and somewhat mystical.

Fittingly, these sentiments equally summarise Tracks, the film about Robyn Davidson's 1977 trek from Alice Springs to the Indian Ocean.

The film, based on Davidson's book of the same name, sets up the story slowly as the young Australian woman (played by Wasikowska) arrives in central Australia and sets about learning the arts of camel breaking and wrangling.

Securing funding support from National Geographic, Davidson eventually sets out on the 1700-mile journey with four camels and a dog, enduring dust storms, feral camels, harsh conditions, and intermittent visits from a talkative photographer (Driver) along the way.

The who, what, where, when and how of Tracks is interesting, but the kicker is the why. What possesses a seemingly sensible young lady to Burke-and-Wills her way across the most hellish portion of the outback?

Tracks hints at varying theories and it's refreshing that the film never gets carried away with answering the 'why?' definitively. As frustrating as it might seem, the movie encourages you to make your own guesses from the evidence presented, and is all the more rewarding for it.

Wasikowska's performance is top-notch, not only carrying the film, but making Davidson believable and wonderfully multi-faceted, with those facets running the gamut from "stoic and determined" to "more than a little bit bonkers". The adventurous "camel lady" also comes off as either socially awkward or desperately quiet, and again, this adds to the mystery of why she does what she does.

But as mentioned previously, the film manages to be much like the landscape - intriguing yet repetitive, and mystical yet sporadically dull. Wasikowska probably lost count of the number of times director Curran said to her, "OK, Mia, in this shot you're going to be walking through the desert with your camels".

While this might not make for scintillating viewing, it does suit the subject matter perfectly and it's still interesting to watch. You won't be on the edge of your seat, but you'll feel a sense of release at the ending.

The film is also understated in its drama - the troubles Davidson faces are never exaggerated and it seems like the filmmakers have erred on the side of fidelity, making for a quiet and at-times meditative journey, as opposed to hamming up the life-and-death nature of her trip.

A lack of tension is slightly compensated for by the episodic nature of the story, so at least something is constantly breaking the monotony of watching Wasikowska walking with camels. It certainly helps that the landscape is stunning and that Curran and cinematographer Mandy Walker capture it in all its picturesque glory.

Visions of this landscape will stick with you, as will the subject matter. Upon leaving the cinema, it was tempting to think of it as "walking walking walking, met some Aborigines, walking walking walking, chased by camels, walking walking walking...".

But there's something that lingers about Tracks and seems more impressive with a bit of distance.

As an insight into a trip none of us are ever like to take, Tracks is fascinating. It's pace and repetition might put some people off, but for mine this is the perfect way to tell this strange-but-true tale.