Off the Map
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Movie Reviews of Off the Map
Movie Review: "New Mexico is a very powerful place, it's a little overwhelming"
Summary: 4 Stars
Off the Map certainly boasts some of the finest acting one is likely to see in a movie this year. This combined with the beautifully realized vistas of New Mexico desert make for a beguiling and quite watchable film. However, the main problem with Off The Map is that there's not that much of a story; plot elements go in and out, up and down, and around about, but there's really not that much to tie them all together.
Smart dialogue hangs in the air, artistic metaphors constantly abound, and the film is certainly told with an intelligence and maturity, so perhaps the lack of a discernable plot shouldn't really matter that much. Off The Map comes across as more of a character study than a forward-moving, action-fuelled drama, a film where the characters have been plopped down with exquisite photographic care in the desert, and where good actors star and make the most of their meaty roles.
Narrated by Bo Groden (Amy Brenneman), Off the Map tells of Bo (Valentina de Angelis) when she was eleven years old and when she lived off the land, protected from the outside world by Arlene (Joan Allen) and Charley (Sam Elliot), her hippie, counterculture parents. It is 1974 and for years the Grodens have been living in the middle of the desert, far from main roads. They grow, harvest, and/or kill all their own food, own their own home, and make what little money they need from crafts.
They have no phone or indoor plumbing, walk around naked with impunity, and haven't paid taxes in several years. They're also totally in tune with the natural world, having spirit-like relations with a bear and coyote that visit their land regularly. Things begin to change, however, when into their virtually idyllic lives, comes William Gibbs (a terrific Jim True-Frost), an IRS auditor from, Brookline.
But William turns out to be anything but the malevolent taxman. In reality, he's a chronically depressed naive dork, who is so taken with the image of a naked Arlene that he gets himself stung by bees and slips into a delusional fever.
Nursed back to health by mystical Hopi folk remedies, Gibbs gradually falls under the spell of the landscape - and the Grodens, and decides that he is never going back to the office. Instead, he becomes an artist, painting striking watercolors of the desert landscape and sky. Having fallen in love with Arlene, the family let him stay as long as he likes.
That's pretty much the plot. What little else that happens involves Bo's increasing fascination with Gibbs and credit cards, and Arlene's struggles with Charley's depression. At one stage, Arlene begs their best friend George (J.K. Simmons Gibbs), a laconic redneck to visit a psychiatrist and pretend he's depressed so that they can get some much-needed drugs for Charley.
While Bo, who is a whiz at hunting and also a kind of precocious know-it-all, likes to stroll through Kmart, or imagine what it would be like to work in an office and go to a public school, Charley, overtaken with his unexplained depression, can barely even talk and mopes around silently while drinking nonstop glasses of water to replenish his tear ducts.
Meanwhile, Arlene is sick and tired of having to make all the decisions and wishes Charley could just get back in his feet and do something about all the back taxes they owe. She's also surprised when Gibbs tells her that he loves her, explaining to him that the landscape has made him feel this way; gradually she becomes enamored of the handsome young man.
There's no doubt that Off The Map is gorgeous to look at, but the film, as a whole, comes across as a little piecemeal. We get occasional glimpses into the characters past, but nothing ever conclusive or substantial - Charley's reasons for depression are never fully explained and the relationship between Charley and George is never really substantiated - all we can gather is that they liked to wrestle together a lot.
By far the most interesting and compelling character is William Gibbs, and his reasons for suffering depression - which resulted from a childhood trauma - are beautifully played out. The director, Campbell Scott should have probably focused more on telling the story from the point of view of Gibbs rather than Bo, because her story, which fuels the narrative, just seems as if it's inherently the least interesting. Mike Leonard August 05.
Movie Review: Painted Desert
Summary: 4 Stars
Joan Ackerman wrote the play on which this film is based. She's interviewed in the DVD featurette and acts in the most recent Campbell Scott project "Company Retreat." Campbell Scott, son of George C. Scott, does a good job directing this piece, always mixing in the unusual.
Despite a number of excellent performances, the star for me was Jim True-Frost who plays the I.R.S. agent William Gibbs. He wanders on the scene, unstable & out-of-place, and begins to blend in. True-Frost played Stephen Campbell, a man who murders his wife, on a chilling episode of my favorite TV show, "Medium." He was on cable's "The Wire" for six years as well as coming back for Campbell's "Company Retreat." He hit all the levels for me from the uncertain to the smitten and included realizations about his childhood as he delved into tears. This was a star performance.
Joan Allen is already a star with three Oscar nominations for "The Contender," "The Crucible" & "Nixon." She does a wonderful job in the film as Arlene. With a husband suffering from severe depression and a child who is growing up all too rapidly, she seems to accept life as it comes. Allen has this saucy irreverence, well reflected in her masterful performance in The Upside of Anger for which she won a Best Actress award from the Chicago Film Critics Association. In Arlene, the quality shines through a veneer of earth mother peacefulness.
Sam Elliott was recently in The Golden Compass (Widescreen Single-Disc Edition). His rugged good looks & demeanor often cast him as a strong, emotionally secure character. As Charley in this film, he is in the midst of a severe depression. Elliott's internal work for the character is impressive. I really appreciated when he comes out of his funk and gives Allen a sensual foot massage.
J.K. Simmons has worked A LOT! From the sassy newspaper editor in the Spiderman films to Juno (Single-Disc Edition) to appearances on cable TV's "The Closer," his is a face you know you've seen. He seems a bit simple as Charley's friend George, but willing to do anything as a good friend. To my great disappointment, the DVD I rented skipped a bit just after Charley dowses George with beer and then wrestles him to the floor. I wasn't quite sure how that one scene concluded. (Comments? :)
Amy Brenneman from TV's "Judging Amy" has a small cameo as the adult Bo. The young Bo who inhabits most of the film is played by newcomer Valentina de Angelis. Taking as much free reign as permissive parents might give, she complains about defective products to manufacturers to get free samples, examines George's checks, calls into the I.R.S. for William when a bee sting sidelines him, and then orders a $4,000 boat on a credit card for which she qualified through the mail. She would be a handful to most parents, but in the New Mexico desert seems to bloom as a free spirit.
The photography is lovely. The film is good but perhaps doesn't climax as well in the film version. I assume the climax is William Gibbs' demise, but it is rather understated, even though it is a turning point in these characters' lives. I found the featurette less than illuminating. For example at one point Joan Allen explains that at this point in the film she wants William to hand her a wrench, as if that weren't obvious. The painted desert of New Mexico is gorgeous. The audience at the Sarasota Film Festival voted "Off the Map" as their favorite. It is a lovely small film, well worth an evening's entertainment. Enjoy!
Movie Review: Very Realistic Depiction
Summary: 4 Stars
As I write this, my oldest daughter now lives in the wealthiest suburb in Canada. However, when she was nine-ten years old, about the same age as 'Bo' in this movie, we moved to a small ranch in the California Sierras. It was raw land so we lived in a tent for some months, then got a tiny trailer for winter. We had no electricity, no plumbing, and the nearest phone was about 200 yards away in a little shed. While others were watching 'Little House on the Prairie' on TV, my kids were living it!
This time is now fondly recalled by my daughters as the best time of their lives. They loved to have Mom read them stories by the light of a kerosene lamp. In the winter, they stood by the heater to warm up. They had to walk a mile just to catch the school bus to take them to school. It was a treat to watch TV when they could plug a tiny 12-volt B&W TV into our truck. My daughter could ride her pony seven miles up to the end of our road in safety.
Like 'Bo' in this movie, they were always busy, inventing new games and exploring the area. There was a pool in a nearby creek where they and the other kids in the area would go swimming. Watching 'Bo' in this movie, it seemed like I was watching our kids all over again. 'Bo's' life was very realistically depicted in this movie, almost like a documentary. I write this for any family that is thinking of leaving the hectic life of the city for the simple life. This movie gives a very realistic portrayal of what your children's life would be like if you moved 'off the map.'
This should be a PG movie; there is almost no questionable language, so I guess the fact that they showed that the family were naturists raised the rating. The mother is very, very discreetly shown naked out in the garden soaking up the warmth of the sun, and the father was also implied to be naked when the IRS agent came up. [If I'd made the movie, I'd also have had 'Bo' shown skinny-dipping to indicate that the whole family had healthy body acceptance.] Even this aspect is realistic. We had a hose rigged up over a tree branch for a shower, and one time my wife was taking a shower when a small airplane flew over - and then circled over her a few times! Our kids wore clothes more for protection from the sun in the summer than out of 'modesty.' Indeed, some of their friends became naturists as well when they went with us to the river to swim.
One aspect of this movie that is unlike so many movies is that the wife remained faithful to her husband, even though he could not be an equal partner, in spite of the fact that the IRS agent declared that he was in love with her.
There isn't any real story to the movie - it is more of a chronicle of daily life for the family over a period of time. The movie is slow-paced, which is like life in such a situation is in reality. We found it to be very enjoyable. 'Bo' gave a very realistic portrayal of a typical eleven-year-old girl living that life. This is a movie one could watch over and over just to vicariously slow down and enjoy the simple things of life more!
[Three stars for the 'story' with five stars for accurate, realism give the movie four stars for me.]
Movie Review: Flight From Eden
Summary: 4 Stars
In 1994, Campbell Scott, full-time actor and sometimes writer/producer/director attended a play of OFF THE MAP in Massachusetts. It was written by Joan Ackerman. He loved the dramatic event, and immediately took out the option to film it. But per usual for these kinds of aspirations, he took 10 years to put the project together. In the interim, he directed three other films, BIG NIGHT (1996), HAMLET (2000) starring himself, and FINAL (2001).
He brought his film crew in 2002 to a remote corner of New Mexico, north of Taos, not far from the old D.H. Lawrence ranch. They constructed the "Grodin" house with lots of extra windows. Scott, and his crack cinematographer, Juan Ruiz Anchia, used the intense southwestern sunlight and the breathtaking high desert landscape like another member of the cast.
This is the story of a woman in her late 30's, Amy Brenneman, who reflects upon the summer she was 11 years old -the summer her father was depressed -the year a stranger came into her life and joined the family. Nothing was ever the same after that.
Valentina de Angelis played young Bo. In her film debut she shows great promise, rivaling other grand performances by young girls, like Mary Badham in TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, and Tatum O'Neal in PAPER MOON. She played a precocious intelligent child who although she dearly loved her father, she needed to grow up and escape the narrow, albeit natural, limits of the Eden he had created for his family. Sam Elliott played Charley Grodin. This is one of his finest roles. Playing against type, he reveals a rare vulnerability and emotional fragility that he has withheld from us in the past. He habitually stands in shadow and is often nearly mute -but we always know he is there and that he is in tremendous pain. Joan Allen, plays the wife and mother, Arlene, as a feisty sexy half-Hopi earthy long-haired hippie -who adores her eccentric husband and her fussing child, and thrives in the lifestyle that Charley has created out of inventiveness and a lot of useful items from the County Dump. She is struggling with the role of matriarch since her spouse is shut down with his crippling emotional issues. Jim True-Frost excels in the pivotal role of William Gibbs, the IRS pariah who wandered in lost off the desert -becomes first mesmerized by Arlene and then is stung by Grodin honey bees and falls into a near coma and fever. Emerging from his vision quest, he has an epiphany -quits the IRS, continues to live with the Grodins, and becomes an artist. J.K.Simmons does a nice turn as well as the loyal, although dim best friend, George.
This is a slow moving yet sparkling film that merits a good look. It is an important tale of love and loss, and it makes us reassess the quality of our own lives.
Movie Review: let the finer details sink in
Summary: 4 Stars
Being here so many fine reviews of the movie, I am not to add any more briefings of the plot... its a slow tempo movie as a way to feel that time indeed can be slow once you are away from the mundane.. maybe the characters are a little unbelievable.. but then again, life tells you sometimes that fact is starnger than fiction... the movie is to reflect on the various subyacent plots that hit you after seeing the movie... for example, the girl's godfather is almost socially retarded...but he does gets married to a woman who only speaks spanish and he got elected mayor of a town in Mexico.. yet the events are totally hidden..this is magical realism and makes you see that redemption comes from the least expected sources.. indeed this is what the movie is all about.. redemption...its not only the super setting (never mind if they "used" it too muchor too little) everyone here is redempted (hope thats the way the verb is declined).. the travelling IRS guy who is able to find his calling as an artist and live to paint the curvature of the earth (another of those great messages for those who can see it).. the father who outgrowths his depression.. in a way, Joan Allen's character is like the Arizona desert.. its the support of everything that goes on around her... in this movie I appreciate her beauty and character