Some people like to read. Other people like to ski. I like to watch movies. Robyn Davidson… she likes to walk 1,700 miles across the Australian outback. To each their own.

Accompanied only by four camels and her dog, Davidson braved the odds--probably because she was a little odd to begin with--and made the trek. She then wrote a book about it called “Tracks,” which has now been made into a movie about it called Tracks.

Mia Wasikowska plays Robyn, a woman who seemingly just wanted to get away from people for a while. When I want to get away from people, I go camping for the weekend, but apparently she really wanted to get away from people. The extremes her character are willing to go to are hard to relate to, which is why so many people have compared the movie to Into the Wild--which is unfair to Into the Wild, that really good movie about that really weird guy who wanted to get away from people.

Tracks is a decent movie, but one where not a lot happens. Robyn faces some adversity--illness, heat, sunburn, tourists who call her the “Camel Lady”--but after about an hour of that, you realize there is just another hour of the same thing. Adam “I-may-or-may-not-be-a-Sith-Lord” Driver shows up periodically to give her someone to interact with.

Wasikowska does a good job, but she’s been better in other movies. Whether due to Wasikowska or the screenplay, or some combination of the two, Tracks fails to get inside Robyn’s head. As a result, her character just isn’t very interesting… it’s all very surface level.

Tracks is a beautifully shot movie, and the real-life story is impressive in its own right, but the movie fails to get inside its subject’s head, resulting in an ultimately hollow affair.

Review by Erik Samdahl. Erik is a marketing and technology executive by day, avid movie lover by night. He is a member of the Seattle Film Critics Society.