Precisett This movie is magnificent!
Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.
Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.
writers_reign Had this been made in the old days it would have been firmly labelled a 'woman's picture' and possibly rated as a one, two, three or even four handkerchief weepie. Although someone old-fashioned in content it does benefit from excellent performances from the thee leads and whilst it's true that Sigourney Weaver gets the lion's share both emotion and emoting-wise both David Staithairn and Julianne Moore both support and match her. The story has married couple Stathairn and Weaver opting out of urban life for the joys of the country, which tend to sour a little when Weaver, working as a nurse in a local school, ruffles a few feathers and winds up in the slammer on a morals charge. This would be bad enough at any time but it comes right on top of Moore's daughter drowning whilst in the care of Weaver. You can take it from there yourselves so suffice it to say it's a fine example of the genre.
rcraig62 This movie could have been handled with a lot more depth. The first hour or so is well done, but then it becomes another B-movie tear-jerker, so much Hollywood fluff. A Map Of The World is the story of a married mother of two on a Wisconsin farm who suffers terribly when, while babysitting her best friend's two children, one of them wanders off and accidentally drowns in a pond on their property, after which she is charged with child abuse (in an unrelated incident) on her job as a school nurse and the confluence of events turn her quiet farm life upside down.
I thought Sig Weaver gave a generally good performance as the mom in trouble, considering the script she had to work with, which is mostly banal trash. David Straithairn is reliably good as usual as the put-upon husband. I guess Julianne Moore has the best moment in the film, after playing it brave-faced at the death of her daughter, she is found by Weaver in the woods having a private breakdown. It's a great piece of acting and very touching, but it's only great compared to the rest of the movie. Straight-up, it's not all that good. The biggest problem here is the script. Some of the situations and dialogue are fraudulent, and characters aren't really developed. Chloe Sevigny plays basically a cardboard cut-out of a sleazy bimbo (she might as well have just had it stamped on her forehead for all the script gives her to do), and in one scene Julianne Moore's husband is overheard in an angry tantrum because Straithairn and his kids were in their house visiting, but then, I wondered, how did he feel about HER going over THERE. It isn't really explored. I also didn't get some of what Weaver's character was doing - the "let's let Oprah decide" speech, or one scene when Straithairn visits her in prison and she's making a lot of rambling small talk and doesn't ask about the kids - the insensitivity seems totally out of character. I didn't believe it for a second when the black women who were needling her in the cellblock "came around" at the end, the scene where Straithairn and Moore kiss I saw coming a mile away, and for the creme de la creme of tawdry Hollywood BS endings, when Moore's character turns up pregnant at the end of the movie, it is the ultimate in cheap, slapdash, feel-good garbage. Oh, well, drown one baby, make another. This is the sort of thing that screenwriters love because it provides a neat and happy resolution to everything, when, in fact, there is never a resolution to losing a child. If you remove Miss Weaver's occasional nudity, this thing could play forever on Lifetime channel. In spite of some strong efforts by the actors, A Map Of The World is junk, irredeemable junk. 2** out of 4
rtbond Here's yet another nod to composer, arranger and musician/performer Pat Metheny (sans the Group, as was incorrectly identified in another review). On this soundtrack, Metheny is accompanied by an unidentified chamber orchestra (percussion, violin, harp, flute, viola, cello, horn, bass, clarinet and the talented Gil Goldstein on organ).Mostly variations on the title track, these melodic interpretations are quite eloquent (as one would come to expect from both Metheny & PMG), but arranged such that they never overtake the scene in which they are scored. Metheny contributes his own brilliant lead acoustic guitars, as well as piano and keyboards, with an overall combined feel of his previous Secret Story and Beyond the Missouri Sky releases.A warm, introspective journey, this set of 28 tunes (6 less than a minute long and another 10 less than 2 minutes) are well-crafted and are worthy for a listen on a Sunday morning with coffee, in front of the fireplace with a nice bottle of wine or a drive in the country, esp. for those in the midwestern US.
sddavis63 Sigourney Weaver offers a marvellous performance in this film, playing mother and school nurse Alice Goodwin, whose world is torn apart after the death of a friend's child on her property, and the lodging of a sexual assault charge by the mother of one of the students she deals with on a regular basis.This is most definitely NOT a light movie. It has adult themes, and some very troubling subject matter. As good as Weaver is, the supporting cast also offers some very powerful moments. David Strathairn portrays Howard Goodwin, Alice's husband, as he helplessly watches the community turn against the entire family, and as he struggles with the decisions that need to be made to free Alice. Julianna Moore (as Theresa Collins, the mother whose child died while being watched by Alice) is very believable as the grieving mother, struggling with her anger toward Alice over her daughter's death, and yet also convinced that the assault charges against her are ridiculous. The scenes between Strathairn and Collins, both playing vulnerable characters dealing with circumstances completely beyond their control, are raw with emotion. The only performance I found truly disappointing was that of Arliss Howard as attorney Paul Reverdy. I didn't find him believable in the role.All in all, though, this is a strong movie, and well deserves an 8/10.
