Utterly contrived, escapist nonsense in gorgeous Taos, N.M.
Added 1/30/2010
I only have three problems with this movie: the characters, the dialogue and the premise. Other than that, I really did enjoy staring at the beauty of New Mexico for an hour and a half.
This is paint-by-numbers alternative cinema, using the latest stock characters like "the precocious young girl who says such remarkable things," "the deep soul battling clinical depression until, poof, it magically goes away" and "the city man who needs nature to unlock his artistic genius." The writing in this movie is so stilted and unconvincing that never for a moment did I forget that I was staring at the work of some screenwriter's fevered imagination, the dialogue is that ham-handed.
Then there's the idealized vision of Getting Away From It All. In this movie, a three-year supply of canned goods results magically and effortlessly from a small garden patch, and tending a couple of trees is a perfectly reasonable barter for $1000 in dental work. Someone needs to take this writer to the developing world and show them the hard life of constant struggle that really characterizes subsistence agriculture.
What surprised me most is that, honestly, I didn't really mind watching this movie somehow. I've spent some time in Taos County, New Mexico, where this movie was filmed, and I found that putting up with annoying dialogue and clichéd characters was an acceptable price to pay to get to soak up the mountains, the sagebrush, the pinon and juniper again. Your mileage may vary.
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Slow, sweet study of character and landscape
Added 1/28/2010
I love this film. Yes, the 12 year old steals the show, but northern New Mexico itself in the early seventies is a close second. New Mexico was a powerful place. Still is, but was even more so when it was still "undiscovered." And the beauty is not overdone at all. Instead it is just constantly there, quietly reminding us of how much we have lost, in terms of connecting to nature and to ourselves. The folks who wonder what admirers love about the film see it as conrived and trite, and there is some of that. But it works. Partly because of the acting, which is excellent, and partly because it does not offer easy epiphanies or resolutions. The good things that come to the characters are hard earned. The things that matter most are indeed precarious. The power of the film comes from realizing how easily things are lost and how hard they are to gain. Looking back in time at her life at 12, the older version of the little girl sees beauty that eluded her then, when she was often bored and quite understandably wanted to escape to a more peopled landscape. Reminds us that "it is easier to get rich than to know when you are rich."
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Curiously affecting
Added 1/27/2010
The 12-year-old girl is the star here, and she excels with no cutesy tricks. Sam Elliott, the old 70s hound, has little to do as the depressed dad. George, the friend, is maybe the best understated role in this low budget indie, which makes the most of its New Mexico setting. There are no big lessons here. No gunshots or car crashes, either. It's gentle entertainment that won't disappoint.
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Georgia O'keeffe lives through William Gibbs in "Off The Map"
Added 9/21/2009
Any time I have a desire to be transported to the high desert of New Mexico and spend some time in contemplation of my own life and where I am in it,I watch Off the Map.
For me it is a transforming experience. Joan Allen gives her usual yummy fantastic performance,Jim True-Frost tears it up as William Gibbs,and Sam Elliot,Valentina De Angelis and J.K Simmons all give stellar performances.Even Amy Brenneman's cameo is thought provoking,I would love to see the Joan Ackerman play someday. Campbell Scott did it up right,I am sure some people move to New Mexico because of this flick.
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this movie is great! I rented it once about 3 years ago I was browsing one day found it had to have it now I do
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