Off the Map
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Movie Reviews of Off the Map
Movie Review: Enchanting, mesmerizing, spiritually intense
Summary: 5 Stars
The gentle rhythm of the movie is a gesture that penetrates the mysterious glow of nature with intense wisdom. I cannot recommend this movie enough. Director Campbell Scott accentuates the poetry of nature through a stark depiction of a land stripped of human adulteration. The movie is an adaptation of Joan Ackerman's play that centers on the isolated Groden family, Arlene (Joan Allen), Charley (Sam Elliott), and their precocious daughter Bo (Valentina de Angelis) who live in a state of depressed civilization, an abode that is under a spell of an involuted economy where money is but an afterthought and nature the true protagonist. The Groden family has no phone, no running water, no tv, and no neighbors aside from coyotes and bears, both of which end up dead in a ritual of nature that will have you transcend the usual materialist self-serving appropriation of the symbiotic aggregates of life. Survival is more of an internal issue for the family rather than an economic one. Civilization seems to have been dismissed in favor of a love for their landscape and the appeal of a spiritual dynamism that has yet to be "put on the map" by the commercial prints of the "world".
One day a hapless IRS agent, William Gibbs (Jim True-Frost), arrives at their house for an auditing, issued by the government, for the Grodens had not filed in seven years. A Massachusetts native who has transfer to Albaquerque and adopted a new profession, which has buried him deeper into the symptoms that distinguish a cog in the wheel of our civilized machine. The agent will become enchanted with the lifestyle, the landscape and the bewitching simplicity that nestles the Grodens everyday existence. He will end up staying with the family sucked by the aridity of cares that seem to barter with his ease of consciousness and habitual indifference.
The New Mexico desert offers a contemplative universe to the IRS agent who, betaken by Arlene's beauty and the mystical flux of her spiritual transparency, becomes invested by an artistic bent that will alleviate the economic strains the Grodens are about to suffer due to the penalties they incur for neglect to file their taxes. The mesmerism and the intimacy of their simplicity is fraught with an evocative sterility that has beset the head of the household, Charlie, who suffers a deep-rooted depression that will haunt him for half a year. This is the most interesting aspect of the movie. Charlie will detain his energy and become insignificant to the family he had been an ingenious resourceful maverick to. He was the intelligence which had allowed for such a dissident lifestyle to work, while Arlene was the soul that fitted such a naked world. The arrival of the IRS agent signals a movement away from the grieving for the void that surrounds Charlie and a return to celebrate the beauty that this same void elicits.
Bo is an insouciant, eloquent, witty, imaginative, young and dazzling virago that prowls about the story as years removed she piques her memory to disinter the events of the summer when her dad was suffering from such a depression. She narrates from different angles devolving into her return to her family's home at the conclusion of the movie, the setting of her reminiscing journey. The narrative does not offer a rush of action, but it does deliberate and exhilarate through the languid force of a natural mysteriousness, all aglow, illusive and compelling, abounding in its raw powers and contagion, we are absorbed by a dramatization where consciousness seems to be but the infusion, the curving point where the horizon swallows our vision as it dissipates: the vanishing point where humans become but the best interpretive agency that draws boundaries between life and death unaware of its transcendental beauty.
Watch it and own it so that you may be delighted by repeated viewings. The layers of meanings are prodigious and profound. This movie succeeds in animating what great novels do in several hundred pages. It gives life to the dynamism of nature, lyrically startles and emotionally it reaches for a wasteland where desires are anchored in a barren immense.
Movie Review: 'New Mexico can overwhelm you...'
Summary: 5 Stars
OFF THE MAP is so unique a film that comparisons pale. Adapted from her own play Joan Ackermann has written a screenplay whose main character is the high desert of New Mexico and the magical influence that natural beauty and tranquility of the place has on people. Campbell Scott directs this intimate little story with such tenderness and intelligence that he has created what doubtless will become a cult classic.
The time is the early 1970s, and the location is an isolated single home north of Taos owned by a strange family who live on less than $5000. a year by being at one with the land for its provisions. Charley (Sam Elliott) is in a chronically depressive state, unable to speak much and preferring to simply sit in the dark and periodically weep. His resilient wife Arlene (Joan Allen) fends for the family, gardening for food and hunting for meat, selling crafts at the periodic fairs in Taos, and caring for her husband. Their daughter Bo (Valentina de Angelis) is 11 and not only fully capable of living the life style of her family, but also at the same time longing for the ability to leave home and see the world, a desire she feeds by wisely devising rebates on food purchases, applications for credit cards etc. The family's solid friend is George (JK Simmons) who has known Charley since their Korean War days and is fraught with his friend's severe depression.
Into this physically gorgeous terrain that is home to this odd family comes an IRS agent William Gibbs (Jim True-Frost) sent by his new government boss to collect back taxes from the family who has not seen the necessity to pay taxes on their below modest income. William approaches the house, sees Arlene gardening in the nude, is stung by a bee, and lapses into an allergic reaction, a situation that makes him a patient in the household for some days. Bo is fascinated with this 'man form the outside world', Arlene cares for the patient, and Charley quietly opens up to him once William recovers. William's car has been stripped in the desert and he is invited to live with the family until the car is restored.
Each of the family members is changed by William's presence, but none more than William himself who undergoes an epiphany viewing the Sangre de Cristo mountains approach sunset: William forsakes his previous life, begins to paint with watercolors George had intended for Charley as a therapeutic venture, and informs Arlene that he has fallen in love with her. The entire group influence each other's lives and the manner in which this happens is such rare magic that saying more in a review would be unfair to those who have yet to experience this film.
The entire cast is absolutely superb, so much so that it is impossible to name the Star: Sam Elliott, Joan Allen, Valentina de Angelis, Jim True-Frost, and JK Simmons give stunning performances, the quality of acting that takes full advantage of silences, body language, probing into the characters, and most important - understanding the importance of ensemble acting. Yet if one must name the standout performance, it would be the radiant mystical land of New Mexico as captured by cinematographer Juan Ruiz Anchía. Campbell Scott has directed a great screenplay and cast in one of the best movies of the year. It is a quiet, majestic work of art. Highly Recommended. Grady Harp, August 05
Movie Review: Well, that was certainly different
Summary: 5 Stars
No, this isn't another installment in National Lampoon's Vacation series, nor does it chronicle the wacky adventures of a group of friends who get lost on their way to some idyllic vacation spot and wind up trying to hide from inbred cannibalistic hillbillies. Off the Map refers to the isolated setting of the story - as well as the very nature and tenor of the film compared to what you expect from movies these days. I won't talk about this film in terms of comedy at all, as I don't think it has anything to do with comedy. This is a low-key yet impassioned human drama about nothing and everything, an odd study of human nature, family life, living in communion with nature, and the whole cycle of life that always turns out to be much more circular than we ever expected.
Amy Brenneman only appears at the beginning and end of the film, as this is really a story of her character's childhood, especially one important and meaningful summer. Valentina de Angelis plays the twelve-year-old Bo, a girl who dreams of bigger and better things and, to some measure, helps provide for her family in her own special way. Hers is not exactly the classic American home. For one thing, they do live off the map; take a left at the boondocks, go about thirty miles until you reach the sticks, and you've still got a decent trip ahead of you to get to their house. The family has almost no income, living off of what they grow and kill, and Bo's life basically includes only three people: her resourceful mother, her dad's friend George, and her father - who, at this time, was an extremely depressed man. Sam Elliot spends most of his screen time staring into space or crying. Young Bo, on the other hand, is perpetually spirited - and infectiously charming (and I must mention the fact that Valentina de Angelis is a remarkably gifted young actress).
This summer of Bo's father's depression, the family gets audited by the I.R.S. Agent William Gibbs (Jim True-Frost) somehow manages to find their house, only to be stung by a bee and lapse into a days-long fever. He wakes up a changed man, deciding apparently be default to stay right there in the New Mexico desert and begin painting. His presence there turns out to be important in more ways than one.
You know, I really can't even describe this movie. Things just slowly take shape as the summer draws to a close, and the ending does provide a great deal of cloture to this unusual, slightly surreal storyline. By and large, this is a rather depressing movie, yet it somehow seems to shine a flashlight into dark, overlooked nooks and crannies in your soul. You feel as if you have learned something from the whole experience - even if you can't describe what that might be. I can't say with any assurance that there is any real point to the movie - but maybe that in and of itself is the point. The whole movie's sort of a metaphor for life - it's a strange journey, you don't always know where you are or where you're going, and in the end you feel like the whole experience must have meant something.
Movie Review: Slow, easy, spiritual, contemplative. A reward for the patient viewer.
Summary: 5 Stars
"Off the Map" reminded me a bit of "Lost in Translation." The stories are completely different, of course. But there is a similarity in tone and texture. Both movies are more interested in showing the audience how their characters change and evolve than in advancing a traditional plot with a conflict and resolution. Some people who disliked "Lost" might like "Off the Map." However, I'm almost certain that anyone who did like "Lost" will find this movie as equally enjoyable.
The plot of this movie has been written about several times here so I won't repeat most of it. Briefly, it's about a family of three, two parents and a young girl, who live in a secluded house in New Mexico (no running water, no electricity) and live on less than $5000 a year, who are visited by a young inexperienced IRS agent. The story is about how they all change as their lives intertwine in the midst of the beauty of the New Mexico high desert.
New Mexico in itself is a character in this movie. I briefly lived in Santa Fe and I completely related to the IRS agent's feeling of awe and inspiration. Unlike some other viewers, however, I felt that the movie failed to convey some of the majesty of the region. In one of the extras on the DVD the producers talked about how they didn't want to make the scenery "too beautiful," as if it were some form of tourism porno. Perhaps the problem is that I saw the movie on the small screen and not the theater because it seemed to me that they went too far in the other direction. I have stood in the desert, like the IRS agent, and felt overwhelmed and inspired. I understood the character's reaction, but didn't really see why he was reacting the way he did within the context of what they were showing in the movie.
Which brings me to one of the best moments in the movie. The IRS agent thinks he's in love with Arlene, the mother, who appears to be mildly amused by his attention. There's a key moment when "Map" shifts into gear as the agent gazes upon the New Mexico scenery as the sexy song "Mrs. Jones" plays on the radio. As the producers commented, in another movie this would be the moment that the affair began, not smoldered and blew out.
The acting throughout is human and true. There's not a weak performance in the entire movie.
"Off the Map" won't be the most exciting movie you've ever watched. But it is a rewarding experience that shows you just how good the movies can be, despite all the cliche tripe that passes for entertainment at the multiplex.
(Note: If you crave more I recommend the book "The Handyman" by Carolyn See. "Map" borrows a few key elements from the book which tells the story of a young artist and how he changes people's lives as he works as a Mr. Fix It in southern California. It's not as good as this movie (surprisingly), but it does continue the story of art, contemplation and changing people's perspectives on the world.)
Movie Review: Right At The Heart Of It All
Summary: 5 Stars
The action in this film, such as it is, takes place quite literally "off the map" on a self-sufficient single-family homestead lost in the austere and exquisitely beautiful expanse of New Mexico scrubland. But the movie's essence is a strong argument for the idea that there is no map to guide people where they must go, on the journeys that will heal them and give their lives meaning. All the people in this superb film, definitely worth tracking down and owning, go on such journeys, not because they intend to, but because their lives intersect and prompt change, however subtle.
The "star" and narrator is Bo Groden, played faultlessly by Valentina de Angelis. Her story concerns a year in her life when she was 12 or so, told in flashbacks recalled as an adult. Despite living a virtually medieval existence, no running water or electricity, she is highly sophisticated with a keen interest in the outside world. (Her letters to customer service departments and newspaper advice columns are simply delightful and showcase her intelligence, charm, and innocence simultaneously.)
Bo's mother Arlene, the family's anchor, is realized with subtlety and finesse by Joan Allen. Arlene manages to be playful, responsible, compassionate, and firm all at once, never losing sight of what's important. Her husband Charley is another story. Sam Eliott is dazzling as a man locked down in a paralyzing depression. These people do not romanticize anything, and watching Bo and Arlene work around Charley's black cloud is often intentionally funny.
Into this equation comes William Gibbs, Jim True-Frost, who is, of all things, an IRS agent. For an IRS agent this would be the most improbable assignment of a lifetime. That it's his first, and that he clearly dislikes the work, compounds the dilemma. Gibbs quickly morphs from attacking outsider to dependent insider and is absorbed into this wonderfully generous and real group of people. He develops an idealized love for Arlene and a profound admiration for Charley. When he begins painting it is clear that something has happened to him, he has turned a corner.
Just as the old story goes about one cow in one barn starting the great Chicago fire, so the presence of Gibbs and his soul-searching injects just enough passion into the equation to transform this whole family, in ways that are entirely heartwarming. Bo becomes less adult and gets more of the parenting she needs, Charley regains a grip on what's great about life, and Arlene gets her husband back. With the exception of a coyote being killed, the film contains no violence at all. In perfect keeping with the movie's spiritual perfection, the coyote's death is an occasion for grief, making amends, and redemption. If you have trouble getting your hands on a copy of this movie, get a better map.