Customer Reviews

Off the Map

5 star:		(43)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

"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.)

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.

Charley (Sam Elliot) and Arlene (Joan Allen) live in a small home out in the middle-of-nowhere (New Mexico) with their twelve year old daughter Bo (Valentina De Angelis). Pennyless, they survive by trading what they grow in the garden for whatever essentials they need. It's a quiet, simple and relatively happy life for the Grodin's until Charley unexpectedly falls into a deep, prolonged depression. Now lost somewhere in his own inner world he has become almost immobile, uncommunicative and does little else but cry and drink water to replenish his bodily fluids.

Going bad to worse an IRS agent named William Gibbs (Jim True-Frost) appears on their doorstep to audit the Grodin's who haven't filed a tax return in six years. William is immediately bitten by a bee and has an allergic reaction, forcing him to remain with the Grodin's until he's feeling better. When he recovers he appears somehow different than he was upon arrival. Was it the bee sting, the Grodin's bohemian lifestyle or the enchanted New Mexico landscape that has brought about this profound change in their unexpected guest? William has discovered that "New Mexico is a very powerful place."

The film moves at a very slow, protracted pace in tune with the directorial objective of establishing the meaninglessness of time when living "off the map" and free of the constraints of jobs, schedules and responsibilities. If you're not prepared to give your full attention to the film from the beginning you are likely to quickly lose interest, but if you give yourself over to the experience and allow the New Mexico desert to envelope you a multi-faceted gem of a story awaits.

Marvelous performances by all, but the real star of this film is little Valentina De Angelis. She's definitely destined for greatness.

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.

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.]

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.

In the American southwest desert, a family lives independently off the land in a modestly built structure, while the home schooled only child, a daughter, suffers growing pains as she longs for a more urban life, insisting to her parents, "Do you know what the word desert means? It means wasteland!" But there's a bountiful of family love, sun baked desert vistas, mystical coyotes, quiet star lit nights, and an artist's interpretation of the sky and land that make this sunny environment a thriving human oasis in the desert. Touching, leisurely, funny, beautiful to look at, "Off The Map" is a lovingly realised family film for high minded folk. The autobiographical sense bends just a bit as the plot documents the successful career of an artist who lives with the family. His career and work is shown so intricately, one might assume he is a real true-life artist, ( the movie credits suggests he isn't ), and the father, also an artist, who suffers depression throughout the film ( but never succumbs to gloom ), never reveals the source of his depression, and his artwork is strangely never seen. But that's small complaint for the warm embrace this film offers it's viewers. Pass the sun block.

I was prompted to see this movie by an interview of Campbell Scott published in a local(Albuquerque) alternative newspaper. The stage for this movie is the desolate high desert of New Mexico during the early 1970s and is about a family living "Off the Map" although it could as easily been titled "Off the Grid" (that is, not subscribing to any of the public utilities that make life a rat race). The family is surviving on the veteran's benefits of the father (not "off the land" as indicated in many other publications), the crafts and bartering of the mother, and the scams of their daughter who is the real brains of this operation. This is a movie for someone who appreciates an accurate character portrait when he sees one. In the process of trying to buy some cheap property in New Mexico I encountered piece-meal the characters of this movie which Joan Ackermann (whose play this movie is based on and who wrote the screenplay) describes quite accurately. It is clear to me Joan has spent some time off the beaten track in New Mexico. The plot twists and surprises, the stark images of New Mexico, the characters, and the life style portrait are more than worth the price of admission.

This movie was a gift to me and I was told that I needed to own it. OK, I was game but I had never even heard of this movie, but I do enjoy offbeat and independent films, so what the heck.

At first, I really didn't know what to make of this movie, it seemed a bit slow and without order. Since it was already in progress and there was nothing better to do at the time, I just waited a while and then suddenly..............everything starts moving and things get interesting.

Without warning, like shape-shifting, transporting you to a "magical" and beautiful place as is the desert itself. A place where a family living among nature and under the big beautiful sky of New Mexico is carving out a self-sufficient existence with "just-enough" money but a whole lot of love.

The father that is temporarily depressed, the mother whom is a decendent of Hopi indians, and the delightful sunshine of a daughter, live and love among the cactus, mountains and coyotes trying to cope with everyday life in a unique environment.

There is sooo much going on in this movie, it really is hard to convey what's up.....anway....

Then comes a stranger with a briefcase from the IRS to begin an audit. The agent comes upon the young girl's Mother, weeding in the garden naked, and that's all the plot you are going to get out of me, because the rest is amazing.

From there, you are completely captivated.

When this film is over, you feel uplifted and enriched, (even though there are a few sad moments along the way), and ultimately rewarded with a treat for the soul!

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