Monday, December 22, 2008

Off the Map

Joan Allen, Sam Elliott

Set in rural New Mexico, this involved a hollywoodized quirky family whose father is continually weeping, mom weeds naked and the 12 year old daughter is extremely precocious and borderline obnoxious.

Into this idealized atmosphere comes a lost IRS agent who, of course, is transformed from a suit to a brilliant artist just by being around such blithe spirits. It's a pretty tired formula but almost worked here because of the general affability of these people. Elliott's weeping was a stupid idea, though, poorly carried out and ended up ruining the film. Also the boat thing at the end was asinine. 

Not offensive but that's faint praise.

4


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