Lots of patience required

Ben Foster is an actor who we don’t see much of these days, but he surfaces here as an unconventional father who insists on raising his daughter on his own terms.

Directed by Debra Granik, who made Winter’s Bone and gave Jennifer Lawrence her first movie break, this unusual family portrait shares many qualities with the hit 2010 film. This includes a profound empathy for backwoods characters and the discovery of yet another young talent in Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie.

However, this production is different and viewers will require a huge dose of patience and concentration to stick with a slow, low-key character study of a troubled man and his daughter who exist off the land and shun normal society.

Based on Peter Rock’s novel My Abandonment, director Granik attempts to stay faithful to the book which illuminates the plight of teenager Tom, who is torn between family loyalty and the undeniable appeal of civilisation.

The movie opens in the wilderness of Portland’s Forest Park, where we discover Vietnam veteran Will (Foster) and Tom (McKenzie) living like a modern-day Swiss Family Robinson.

They forage for mushrooms and whatever food they can find, collecting rainwater to drink, and starting camp fires by hand.

There is no clear reason why Will has chosen this existence for himself and dragged Tom into his antisocial delirium.

When Will needs supplies, he and Tom leave the shelter of the nature reserve, cross a bridge and buy groceries in town.

In the woods, he and Tom practise survival drills making sure they remain invisible and undetected by the police and the park rangers, a move that would bring their illegal park squatting to an end. One day Tom happens to be spotted by a hiker, an act of casual carelessness that transforms their lives completely.