Map of the World
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Movie Reviews of Map of the World
Movie Review: There But For The Grace Of God
Summary: 5 Stars
We all know it but most of us labor to ignore it - disaster dogs our every step and falls from grace don't come with parachutes. Alice Goodwin, played brilliantly by Sigourney Weaver, lives on a farm with husband Howard, David Strathairn. She works as a school nurse and is raising two, often difficult, daughters almost single-handedly. When her friend Theresa, Julianne Moore, drops her two girls off for a play date, it's a mundane, domestic situation. Moments later one of Theresa's daughters drowns in Alice's pond and life is irrevocably altered.
Alice's innocence, and the knowledge that something like this could happen to anyone anytime, helps no one - least of all Alice - and changes everything. Suddenly her activities as school nurse are called into question, careless, sarcastic comments are seen in a new light, mob rule - with all of its inherent stupidity, appears - and the judicial system's gears begin grinding. Before long Alice is in jail, which is both a safe-haven from the real world's unbearable torment and an ideal delivery mechanism for the punishment she craves. Ultimate exoneration achieves almost nothing; this movie is far too real to sell you that cheap. After all, lurid accusations always appear on the paper's front page while retractions are buried far in the back with the garden supply ads.
A Map Of The World is mercurial; it keeps evading your grasp. That's thrilling, because most movies are so predictable. In large part this is because of Alice herself, a smart, feisty woman who speaks first and thinks later, a woman who wants life to work as it should and doesn't feel like doing the schmoozing and nice-making it takes to keep people happy. We know her, we care for her, and we fear for her, because - like so many people who are their own worst enemies - it galls her to "play the game." In our hearts we know that attitude can work when everything's going your way, but after the fall from grace, a little "go along to get along" is considered good form.
The film belongs to Weaver; she is credible and strong in every frame. Moore's expression of maternal grief is unforgettable. But the sleeper performance here is David Strathairn. As a quiet man hurled into extraordinary situations he gives a clinic on the notion that all great acting is re-acting - brilliant. Even the soundtrack, by jazz icon Pat Metheny, shines. A Map Of The World reminds you that film, in the right hands, can be art.
Movie Review: The Terrain of Tragedy.
Summary: 5 Stars
There isn't a false note nor a dishonest scene in this drama of tragedy and its aftermath. A wonderful cast, led by Sigourney Weaver in a superb performance, play recognizably flawed and human characters coping with the tragic death of a child, and then, later, arrest and imprisonment for child abuse.Rarely has the stresses and strains of child-rearing and married life been presented so honestly. Sigourney Weaver's Alice Goodwin is a farm wife and mother and part-time school nurse. She is often exhausted and frustrated with her children, the eldest girl being a real pill at times, and bored with the routines of family life. Her husband is a decent, taciturn man, content to deal with the farming and leave the children's need for constant attention and domestic chores to his wife to handle.
Weaver's best friend and neighbor is Theresa, wonderfully played by Julianne Moore, is the perfect wife and mother with a house neat-as-a-pin in contrast to the chaos of Weaver's. A tragic accident sets in motion a series of events that land Weaver in jail, and upsets all the relationships and the world of these very decent people.
What is so refreshing in this film is that all the characters are not cliches. Weaver's Alice is a sharply intelligent, sometimes abrasive, prickly personality. She does not submit humbly to her imprisonment and in fact becomes even more difficult. David Strathairn as Howard her husband, is a man overwhelmed by the sudden responsiblity for his children and household. There is a nice turn by Arliss Howard as Weaver's attorney, self-amused and egotistic at the legal games he plays. Julianne Moore's Theresa is believable in her stricken grief.
This is a sharply observed study of real people under stress and passing through the kind of events that change lives forever. It is worth your time alone to see Sigourney Weaver's masterful embodiment of this beautiful, difficult, ornery and truthful woman. But her marvelous performance is matched and ably supported by her co-stars.
There may be missing that "big" cathartic moment to round out the picture, this film opting to reveal its truths more quietly and matter-of-factly, but it has something to say about how people cope with and are transformed by tragedy and tribulation, and that makes it reach farther than most of the fare we get. A solid 4-1/2 stars. Worthwhile.
Movie Review: Gripping story, great music, few flaws
Summary: 5 Stars
I actually bought this movie because I enjoyed the soundtrack CD by Pat Metheny so much, and because the reviews here on Amazon are favorable. I got more than I expected from this movie. It's so good that Metheny's music is overwhelmed by the drama. I won't go into summarizing the plot, as several other reviewers have done that very well.
If only Sigourney had kept her clothes on, this would be a perfect film for almost the whole family. She delivers an excellent performance, as do Julianne Moore and David Strathairn. The gratuitous sex scenes and home sex video banter amongst the couples should have been left on the cutting room floor to improve the movie. I saw enough of Sigourney in the movie Alien...not that I'm complaining!
This movie highlights how pack-driven we as a people can be in damning innocent people. You see it often in newspapers and magazines. That said, if I were in her place I would be racked with guilt at having let the little girl out of my sight long enough for her to reach that body of water next to their house. It's not like the pond just suddenly appeared at dawn. Heck, a fence only costs a couple of hundred bucks to put up yourself.
Buy it, enjoy it, have a good cry, but keep your finger ready on the fast forward button to skip the aging-actress skin scenes.
Movie Review: A must for young parents
Summary: 4 Stars
Based on a novel by Jane Hamilton, Map of the World is a gripping family drama. Alice ( Sigourney Weaver ) and Horward ( David Strathairn ) have moved to the countryside and own a farm. Alice is a nurse at the local school and Horward tends his farm. Alice is active and a loving person at heart. However, she is disorganised, speaks her mind and often attracts trouble. They have two demanding young kids who get Alice to her wits' end. Their neighbours are Theresa ( Julianne Moore ) and Dan also with two kids. One day Alice offers to take all the four kids for a swim while Theresa goes for an outing. Alice has her hands full with the kids and while she is in the bathroom, tragedy strikes. Theresa's younger daughter has strayed into the pond and is lying face down in the water when Alice frantically finds her. They rush to the hospital, but the worst happens and the child dies. Theresa is completely shattered while Alice is filled with guilt. She is unable to face Theresa and the family goes through social backlash. However, there is more trouble on the way as Alice is arrested for alleged child abuse at school. Horward is now overwhelmed with the troubles in the family. One the one hand he has to take care of the farm and the kids while on the other he has to get Alice out of prison. Director Scott Elliott has handled this family drama well. Several scenes stand out, one between Alice and Theresa after the loss for her child is heartbreaking, a series of scenes showing Alice's anexity at the hospital when the child is strugging for life and then there is one scene where Horward leaves the children in a store of a mall and rushes to meet Alice in prison just in time for the visiting hours. Elliott has also shown the understanding and love between the couple quite naturally. Alice's dislike for her know-it-all mother-in-law comes through clearly. All young parents will easily relate to the tandrums their children throw at the busiest times of the day.There are some unrealistic scenes in the movie too. The women's prison seems like a smart hotel with concealed reading lamps next to the bed and the prisoners are dressed in neat and attractive clothes. What also hits you in the movie is the loneliness and helplessness of the family in difficult times. It's the typical social reaction that is encountered in today's society.
Sigourney Weaver and David Strathairn have done a fantastic job. Julianne Moore seems a little less expressive considering her tragic role. The pace of the movie is fair but you will absorbed in the story till the very end. Recommended.
Movie Review: excellent
Summary: 4 Stars
I honestly found this movie to be disarming, mostly because of Sigourney Weaver's performance as an unapologetic and perhaps too honest and too direct woman whose very regular life unravels under tragic consequences and the scrutiny that comes afterward. Weaver plays Alice, a school nurse, wife of a Wisconsin farmer, who comes off as coarse, abrasive and unmannered. This makes very little difference at first, except that she might be something of an outsider. This, however, bears a great deal of difference, when, while babysitting for her best friend Theresa (Julianne Moore), one of Theresa's children drowns. Ultimately Alice is scrutinized following this accident, and later is held legally accountable for charges of child abuse made against her.
The story delves very deeply into the three-dimensional characters in this film; a psychological and adult film that probes various dimensions of its character's lives very effectively. Weaver's Alice particularly has the greatest burden to bear, the most weakness and frailty but at the same time the most strength. She is stripped to bare bones (from a psychological standpoint) in jail, and though she has to be strong and resolute to live there, the aftermath of the events reveal immediate impacts on her family (her husband has been content to run the farm and leave the daily life business to her; suddenly he is confronted with rearing their children, whom he hardly seems to know, and coming up with ways to handle the mounting legal bills, etc.) Relationships are tested in the film (both relationships people have with themselves as well as relationships between people), and the performances delivered by Weaver, David Strathairn as her husband and Moore as the grieving mother, Theresa, are deeply felt, human performances.