Well, that was certainly different   December 31, 2005

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.


An IRS agent becomes a painter when he lands off the map   November 15, 2005
  4 out of 4 found this review helpful

When you see "Off the Map" it is hard to believe this was originally a play because the landscape of northern New Mexico is so integral to Campbell Scott's film. Playwright Joan Ackerman did the screenplay as well, and I know that "Off the Map" has been performed on stage in places like Chicago, but I cannot get my mind past the idea of in being performed at the Adobe Theater in Corrales, New Mexico, where the landscape that is at the heart of the story is around you, or at least only a few miles away. It only makes sense that in something called "Off the Map," the place is of prime importance.

"Off the Map" is a memory play, as Adult Bo (Amy Brenneman) recalls when she was Young Bo (Valentina de Angelis) and an I.R.S. agent came to visit her family's home in an abode house out in the middle of nowhere. With neither power nor running water Bo's family grows their own vegetables and sometime check out the local dump to see what is available. Since their only income is $320 a month in Veterans benefits, they have not done their taxes for seven years. So the I.R.S. has dispatched young William Gibbs (Jim True-Frost) to investigate, and after several days of driving along dirt roads his car breaks down and he finally stumbles across them.

What he finds is Arlene (Joan Allen) standing naked in her garden, at which point he is stung by a bee and becomes ill. Arlene takes care of him, having long ago gotten used to taking care of her husband Charley (Sam Elliott), who suffers from depression. For the most part Charley cries or does nothing, and seeing Sam Elliott reduced to a piece of furniture is unsettling indeed. It has been years, but since Bo is relating this part of her story we suspect that something might happen to shake Charley out of his lethargy. Then again, maybe not, because it is the character of William Gibbs who is the key catalyst here.

William recovers and announces his love for Arlene, whose response to the declaration is to simply say, "That's nice." This is key to understanding her character because Arlene accepts things. How else do we explain her interactions with her husband, the threats of the I.R.S., and William's decision not to leave? But William is not only enamored with Arlene, he is sick and tired of his job, which is not what he wants to do with his life. Then he picks up a paintbrush and the next thing we know Bo's room is decorated with a massive watercolor, 3 feet high and 41 feet long, wherein the earth meets the sky. Meanwhile, Bo sends an interesting array of letters off into the world trying to provoke a response that gives proof to her own existence and her ability to matter in the world.

I think Joan Allen is going to win the Oscar next year for her performance in "The Upside of Anger," not just because it is a great performance but also because I think she is probably the second most admired actress in Hollywood after Meryl Streep. I believe she has the same reservoir of respect that propelled Morgan Freeman to this Oscar win last year, and "Off the Map" is one of the build blocks in her richly deserved reputation. Her Arlene is a portrait of restraint in so many ways that it takes you a while to catch on that there is a reason that she is not doing more and a key to the rationale for how she keeps her family together in the middle of no where.

This is an ensemble piece and Allen is the anchor for that ensemble, with de Angelis (in her film debut), providing what little spark there is in the film. This is not meant as a disparagement because "Off the Map" is a low-keyed film whose snail pace will undoubtedly drive some viewers to distraction. But the pace is appropriate because this is ultimately a film about small things. Maybe you just have to have lived out on the edge of a mesa, where coyotes catch rabbits on your front lawn from time to time and in some directions there is not another soul to be found for many a mile, to appreciate the tempo. Final Note: I do not remember the name of the artist who did the artwork done by William in the film, but they did a really nice job with their watercolors, because I had no problem accepting that people would find them collectible.