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List Price: $19.94 | | Label: Sony Pictures
Salesrank: 9460
Released: August 9, 2005 |
| Our Price: $4.60 |
| Used Price: $3.00 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Off the Map avoids conventional drama (hardly any event leads to an outcome you could expect) but the lean, sharp dialogue and superb performances make this movie a rich, human comedy. A young girl named Bo, living in the New Mexico desert, rebels against her bohemian parents by reading Forbes magazine and applying for credit cards. Her father Charley (Sam Elliott, Tombstone) has sunk deep into a paralyzing depression; her resilient, industrious mother Arlene (Joan Allen, The Upside of Anger) alternates between gently supporting Charley and railing against his zombie-like state. Into this off-balance family comes a tax auditor (Jim True-Frost, Singles), who--after being stung by a bee and lapsing into a sudden fever--becomes an accidental catalyst for change. In her movie debut as Bo, Valentina de Angelis gives a wonderful performance, head and shoulders above most actors her age. Campbell Scott's direction, as with his first film Big Night, is warm but not sappy; he has a gift for letting a story wander without it ever getting lost. The New Mexico landscape glows in the sun and helps give Off the Map a quiet but mysterious vision of life. --Bret Fetzer
Off the Map Reviews:
Pass the popcorn...and the prozac. 
2008-06-23 - I wish Campbell Scott had realized how off-putting the "precocious" child actress in this film was. Every glance, every spoken word of her dialogue just made me cringe. I can't believe her forced performance didn't bother others more.
The plusses? Joan Allen is TERRIFIC. The photography is fantastic.
But the "BO" character? Man, if I lived around a precocious-every-word-of-dialogue-is-just-so-pert-and-perky-from-my-12-year-old-lips...I'd be catatonic and depressed like Sam Elliott, too. Pass the popcorn and the prozac! Skip this film.
Great for NM lovers, artists, and folks longing to see a movie with no enemies 
2008-03-08 - A beautiful movie set in northern New Mexico in a simple time. A family lives in the NM high desert rural land reminiscent of "the 60s" style living. The story is occasionally narrated through the eyes of the daughter, now adult. The acting is superb. It is movie that deals with depression, eocnomic hardship, challenge, and family issues without judgment, blame, or violence. An outsider joins the family and becomes involved in their lives in an integral way. It is refreshing to see a movie where there are no bad guys. Off the Map offers a transformative theme and is a wonder to see. The natural beauty adds to its depth. It is hard to imagine coming away from this movie without feeling sad yet edified about life. I heartily thank my friend and author M. Quest who recommended this to me!
Off the Map
2007-07-23 - Beautifully shot and rich in emotion, "Map" is a film that quietly gets under your skin. Elliott is a revelation as Charley, a man carrying a nameless despair that's struck him dumb, while Allen is fabulous (no surprise) as philosophical bedrock Arlene. Young de Angelis also shines in a demanding juvenile role. A story about life's infinite possibilities and finding sustenance when and where you least expect it, Scott's movie is a quirky, heartwarming delight. Go off the map to see it.
Great Movie
2007-07-22 - Great New Mexico scenes. If you are a dreamer and a little laid back, then you need to see this movie. Sam Elliot plays a different role, which is a depressed person.
let the finer details sink in 
2007-05-08 - 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
