Drink em if you got em
Added 7/15/2009
If ever there was a movie that one needed a stiff drink to tolerate, it's this one. This woman leads a miserable life, then it gets worse, then worse, then you realize she's such an obnoxious idiot that you hope for things to go badly for her. As in 'getting-hit-by-a-bus-and-dragged-four-blocks' badly.
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not a map of the world
Added 3/29/2008
i had read the novel years ago but had never seen the film version, so when it was offered here, i ordered it with great expectations. maybe i forgot the story & overestimated it, but this is one of the Worst films made. Sigourney Weaver is Awful , a very stilted performance, awkward and spooky, slow, not moving, unsympathetic, not at all how i would have cast it. so i didn't watch it to the end. someone told me several yrs ago that it wasn't good but i wanted to see for myself.
sorry i invested in it, should have looked for a rental, but even that would've been too much money for this pic.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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There But For The Grace Of God
Added 12/2/2007
We all know it but most of us labor to ignore it - disaster dogs our every step and falls from grace don't come with parachutes. Alice Goodwin, played brilliantly by Sigourney Weaver, lives on a farm with husband Howard, David Strathairn. She works as a school nurse and is raising two, often difficult, daughters almost single-handedly. When her friend Theresa, Julianne Moore, drops her two girls off for a play date, it's a mundane, domestic situation. Moments later one of Theresa's daughters drowns in Alice's pond and life is irrevocably altered.
Alice's innocence, and the knowledge that something like this could happen to anyone anytime, helps no one - least of all Alice - and changes everything. Suddenly her activities as school nurse are called into question, careless, sarcastic comments are seen in a new light, mob rule - with all of its inherent stupidity, appears - and the judicial system's gears begin grinding. Before long Alice is in jail, which is both a safe-haven from the real world's unbearable torment and an ideal delivery mechanism for the punishment she craves. Ultimate exoneration achieves almost nothing; this movie is far too real to sell you that cheap. After all, lurid accusations always appear on the paper's front page while retractions are buried far in the back with the garden supply ads.
A Map Of The World is mercurial; it keeps evading your grasp. That's thrilling, because most movies are so predictable. In large part this is because of Alice herself, a smart, feisty woman who speaks first and thinks later, a woman who wants life to work as it should and doesn't feel like doing the schmoozing and nice-making it takes to keep people happy. We know her, we care for her, and we fear for her, because - like so many people who are their own worst enemies - it galls her to "play the game." In our hearts we know that attitude can work when everything's going your way, but after the fall from grace, a little "go along to get along" is considered good form.
The film belongs to Weaver; she is credible and strong in every frame. Moore's expression of maternal grief is unforgettable. But the sleeper performance here is David Strathairn. As a quiet man hurled into extraordinary situations he gives a clinic on the notion that all great acting is re-acting - brilliant. Even the soundtrack, by jazz icon Pat Metheny, shines. A Map Of The World reminds you that film, in the right hands, can be art.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Great Acting but Challenging Movie
Added 9/30/2007
I know this film is based on a popular novel but it almost felt like there was too much story here. Two families dealing with the tragic death of a daughter in the other's care (one movie). A woman unjustly thrown into jail with other "baby-killer" women (another movie). A courtroom drama of fighting sexual abuse charges (yet another movie).
A MAP OF THE WORLD nearly pulls off all of these storylines...except Sigourney Weaver's character keeps confounding us with distracting and even frustrating lines and actions.
Don't get me wrong: I love Sigourney Weaver. I loved her in ALIEN, I loved and lusted after her in HALF MOON STREET (and GHOSTBUSTERS). I loved her in GORILLAS IN THE MIST. I even remember falling for her the first time I saw her in 1981's EYEWITNESS.
And she's outstanding here. Even playing a difficult woman like this character, you sit back and watch, amazed. But this character makes it hard to root for and like her sometimes. This obviously works for a lot of reviewers here, but the story takes too many twists and turns that you end up wanting to throw your hands up at (at least) one point (and it's a courtroom scene).
I don't know how the book reads, but there are several times that Sigourney's character has so much contempt for country folk--like when she's pratically sneering at a priest arriving at the hospital to comfort Julianne Moore's family--that I could see where viewers would lose sympathy for her. David Straitharn's husband remains aloof and wounded but never really lets us in. I don't know. No easy answers with these characters. Kind of like life....
So obviously this is one of those movies where it doesn't matter what I say or all the other reviews: you may like or dislike this film, but it will challenge you.
The overall cast is great. I really enjoyed Arliss Howard's attorney.
But if you enjoy Sigourney Weaver, definitely check this out.
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A Must Have for Sigourney fans
Added 7/5/2007
This film was hugely overlooked and underappreciated. The performances are honest and very real. The story of a woman who, through a series of horrific incidents, misconceptions and misunderstandings, loses everything including herself. Sigourney Weaver portrays this broken down human being with humility and elegance. Weaver is all at once, strong, emotionally unavailable, depressed, sad, scarey, loving, supportive and charged. This is an Oscar performance if there ever was one. The style in which Weaver illuminates her character is completely different than any other performance in any of her other films (Aliens, Gorillas In The Mist, The Ice Storm).
The story is challenging, but the rewards are fascinating.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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Drink em if you got em
Added 7/15/2009
If ever there was a movie that one needed a stiff drink to tolerate, it's this one. This woman leads a miserable life, then it gets worse, then worse, then you realize she's such an obnoxious idiot that you hope for things to go badly for her. As in 'getting-hit-by-a-bus-and-dragged-four-blocks' badly.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
not a map of the world
Added 3/29/2008
i had read the novel years ago but had never seen the film version, so when it was offered here, i ordered it with great expectations. maybe i forgot the story & overestimated it, but this is one of the Worst films made. Sigourney Weaver is Awful , a very stilted performance, awkward and spooky, slow, not moving, unsympathetic, not at all how i would have cast it. so i didn't watch it to the end. someone told me several yrs ago that it wasn't good but i wanted to see for myself.
sorry i invested in it, should have looked for a rental, but even that would've been too much money for this pic.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
There But For The Grace Of God
Added 12/2/2007
We all know it but most of us labor to ignore it - disaster dogs our every step and falls from grace don't come with parachutes. Alice Goodwin, played brilliantly by Sigourney Weaver, lives on a farm with husband Howard, David Strathairn. She works as a school nurse and is raising two, often difficult, daughters almost single-handedly. When her friend Theresa, Julianne Moore, drops her two girls off for a play date, it's a mundane, domestic situation. Moments later one of Theresa's daughters drowns in Alice's pond and life is irrevocably altered.
Alice's innocence, and the knowledge that something like this could happen to anyone anytime, helps no one - least of all Alice - and changes everything. Suddenly her activities as school nurse are called into question, careless, sarcastic comments are seen in a new light, mob rule - with all of its inherent stupidity, appears - and the judicial system's gears begin grinding. Before long Alice is in jail, which is both a safe-haven from the real world's unbearable torment and an ideal delivery mechanism for the punishment she craves. Ultimate exoneration achieves almost nothing; this movie is far too real to sell you that cheap. After all, lurid accusations always appear on the paper's front page while retractions are buried far in the back with the garden supply ads.
A Map Of The World is mercurial; it keeps evading your grasp. That's thrilling, because most movies are so predictable. In large part this is because of Alice herself, a smart, feisty woman who speaks first and thinks later, a woman who wants life to work as it should and doesn't feel like doing the schmoozing and nice-making it takes to keep people happy. We know her, we care for her, and we fear for her, because - like so many people who are their own worst enemies - it galls her to "play the game." In our hearts we know that attitude can work when everything's going your way, but after the fall from grace, a little "go along to get along" is considered good form.
The film belongs to Weaver; she is credible and strong in every frame. Moore's expression of maternal grief is unforgettable. But the sleeper performance here is David Strathairn. As a quiet man hurled into extraordinary situations he gives a clinic on the notion that all great acting is re-acting - brilliant. Even the soundtrack, by jazz icon Pat Metheny, shines. A Map Of The World reminds you that film, in the right hands, can be art.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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