Review of Off the Map (2003) by James H — 09 Jun 2005

Within the first 15 minutes, you can tell exactly what type of film Campbell Scott wanted to make: a coming of age story about an intelligent child, a tale of depression, a portrait of nature, a self discovery tale, and yes, even an absurd comedy. You can also see some great potential in this premise, even if it?s been done before to varying success. For the rest of the 95 minutes or so, you watch him struggle to get all these messages across. He comes close on occasion, but ultimately fails at each and every one of them. I wouldn?t call this poor filmmaking. No, not that at all. He has a good eye for shots, a proven cast, and a workable script. He?s just crippled by his own ambition, and somewhere along the way, his movie spins away from the realism that this type of project desperately needs.

The story centers on the Grodin family, who, as you could guess, live ?off the map? somewhere in New Mexico. They survive without income by hunting, trading, gardening ? basically living off the land. The mother, Arlene (Joan Allen) does most of the work these days. Her husband Charley (Sam Elliott) suffers from clinical depression, so he isn?t much use around the house anymore. He mostly just sits around drinking water and crying. Their best friend George (J.K. Simmons) does his best to lend a hand when he can, and their energetic daughter Bo (Valentina de Angelis) mostly helps by writing complaints to large corporations, hoping to get some freebies in return.

The family is visited by William Gibbs (Jim True-Frost), a recently hired IRS employee who?s there to audit them for not filing their taxes in 7 years. Stunned by seeing Arlene naked by the garden, he fails to notice a bee lurking nearby and is stung on the hand. William doesn?t take well to bees and is rendered mostly unconscious for a few days, giving the Grodin family a slight taste of the outside world. As it turns out, once he wakes up, he finds himself smitten with both Arlene and their anti-civilization living style, in that order. He stays and assimilates, becoming an honorary member of the Grodins.

One of many problems with this project is that nothing seems genuine. Even veteran actress Joan Allen, who I don?t recall ever giving a truly bad performance, isn?t her usual self. Her lines sound awkward and a little forced, as does everyone else?s around her. The daughter is unrealistically bright, upbeat and energetic. She?s so overboard and ambitious, that she really doesn?t seem to belong, or even come from, our green planet. Just for a little taste of her antics, this 10-year old girl somehow manages to get a hold of a Mastercard, and purchases a boat. Yes, a boat, for this family who lives in the desert. The aim with her eccentricities is of course comic relief, but even the laughs don?t feel like they belong. This is a film about nature, right? Not a Wes Anderson picture. J.K. Simmons? character is alright, but it?s never clear what he contributes to the film. He?s just kind of there. The only character who seems authentic and necessary is the depressed father, yet we never really understand the nature of his depression, and because he rarely speaks, we hardly learn anything about his character.

Campbell Scott could be a good indie director. His acting resume has certainly given him a lot of experience with small projects, and supposedly his directorial debut, Big Night, was well received (I haven?t seen it). Hopefully his next project will be more focused, more grounded, and a little less ambitious. This film could have been great if he?d focused on just one of the stories he tried to tell. Like the location of his movie, his directing is way too off the map to be worth seeing.