Not even bad in a good way

Don't listen to the negative reviews

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

This film reflects its international pedigree. Canadian films are wonderful when viewed in their "language" and film syntax, kind of a cross between French & English & Australian films in caprice, intelligence, plot development, and subjects. American movie goers and film watchers (and Reviewers here) find something missing or too over-the-top in Canadian projects, wherever they're financed. "Snow Walker" was good but not "Hollywood." "Battle of the Brave" was good; not exactly Hollywood. "Map of the Human Heart;" very, very good in its own vernacular. Very good - and moving and thought-provoking, and so on ..."Map..." has a love scene that could have come from the mind & imagination of Spielberg. Though not long or overly explicit, it may be one of the most unique and remarkable and perfectly contextual in all of film. Beautiful. Watch and see, near, or in, the 3rd Act.Annie Galipeau is young here, and good, and presages her role in "Grey Owl" with Pierce Brosnan.Thanks MIRAMAX for putting money into risky, off-the-worn-sprocket-hole projects.

This movie will rip out your heart. It's the story of an Eskimo man that seems to be cursed from his very birth to lose everything that ever touches his life. It starts out with tragedy and it ends with tragedy. It was a lovely movie but just too sad for me. I used to be in charge of Movie Night at our school's library and we picked this one. By the end of the movie, the other tech and I were the only ones left-everyone else had walked out. Over and over we see this poor guy just get nailed by life. At the end, we finally think things are going to work out for him and BAM! Screwed again. I love movies that evoke deep emotion but this was too much-too depressing for me. Still gave it a good rating thought because it is beautifully done.

I saw this film based on IMDb reviews, and I've got to say, you got me. That star rating at the top of the page? Fooled me! Now why was this film so bad? I'm sure that director Vincent Ward had grand swirling ideas about this film, but most of it feels like a mid-quality Lifetime movie. The dialogue is bad, and making it worse is the delivery by the so-so actors. Jason Scott Lee's performance is so melodramatically over the top that my wife and I laughed most of the time that he was supposed to be "upset" or "sad". Patrick Bergin just simmers and leers, and when he talks about the bombing of Dresden and why he's ordering it to be bombed is just silly and over the top.Like I said, most of the film feels like a Lifetime movie. Having sex on a barrage balloon? Above the dome at Albert Hall? And when Anne Parillaud drops one of her stockings down into the orchestra pit, both my wife and I said, "It's WWII, isn't that stocking going to be a little hard to replace?" When Lee's daughter shows up at the end of the film, she says the stupidest thing in the movie. You're in the Arctic circle and you say, "I'm cold."? Of course you're cold, idiot! Most of the situations are set up as artistic and auteur-ish, but they just comes across as silly. Some of it is pretty, but it's just not worth your time.

This is one of the best movies I've ever seen....I never want to see it again.Why don't I want to see it? Its simply depressing. I can't watch it with out becoming suicidal. This is the story of two ill fated lovers over the early and mid part of the 20th century. Its told in flashback in a fishing village in Canada.What can I say? This is a film of great performances and moments, the firestorm in Dresden gives me nightmares.I would love to recommend the film, but its ultimately so bleak I don't know many people who would want to see it.Still I give it 10 out of 10 simply because it provokes such a deep reaction in me.