It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Simply put this movie is about beauty: beauty of people, the land, simplicity and love. This is in my top 10 favorites of all time. It hit a chord and the cord was "Om."Sometimes less is more and this movie does a great job in showing the beauty in a Thoreauean manner.Like Charley (Sam Elliot) the movie made me cry and i cant say why. Perhaps it was shear beauty of it and the awesome landscape.Go see it with low expectations because it is not a "knock your socks off movie" but through subtlety, as subtle as the muted colors of New Mexico, I promise it will overwhelm you with it's power.

New Mexico has for the last hundred years drawn some of the most disparate and dysfunctional characters seeking to find themselves in the beauty of the landscape. All sympathy for the poor natives who must put up with these seekers of senselessness which is the basis of the film, Off The Map. Directed by the superb actor, Campbell Scott, this is the summer story of Bo, an 11 year old home-schooled, precocious, only child, her half-Hopi mother Arlene (Joan Allen as a Hopi???), her depressed dad, Charley (Sam Elliott), IRS agent, William Gibbs (William True-Frost), and George, her god father, all who surround the child with an alternative fantasy of cleaned up 70s hippie feel-good lifestyles sans drugs, that is somewhat Utopian and revisionist. Moving like a stilted play moved out to the Taos landscape, this coming of age/lost in paradise episodic 3-act story has elements of theatre of the absurd mixed with All In The Family silliness couched in the ideas of back to the earth ideologies. When an IRS agent audits the family, he finds they don't live on cash but barter for everything and live in cast off clothing. Yet through some overt identity theft, the ever-annoying Bo steals sufficient information from the adults to qualify for a Master Charge card which allows her to purchase a sailboat delivered from San Diego in time to surprise her father for his birthday, and placing the family in further debt to the tune of over $4,000. No one seems to worry about the money, or lack of social skills the kid presents, or the fact that a federal employee has gone missing in the New Mexico countryside on per diem? Its all swept under the Navajo rugs in the name of picturesque alterity. I'm sure this small indie film is meant to make for feel good family entertainment, however, on screen, it comes off just plain boring despite the fine cast. Watch for the landscape, and rambling ode to alternative family setting, but as entertainment, it was far from satisfying or noteworthy.

'Off the Map' passed the time, it was pleasant, it was sweet, certainly a little different to everything else out there, but by no means did I 'enjoy' it.Reading all the treacly positive comments here on IMDb, and looking at the IMDb ratings categorized by age & sex, it appears that this 'is a film for everyone' (though females in all age groups will like it slightly better than men of similar age). Yet I watched 'Off the Map' this weekend on DVD with 3 other people (so we were 2 males, 2 females), and who's ages spanned 3 IMDb age-groups, and we all came away from it feeling not only a sigh of relief that the film was finally over, but disappointed that 'that' was it.The film itself is decent: gorgeous scenery, pretty good acting, straightforward story, etc, etc. But the film plodded along so slowly that we all found ourselves looking at the clock to see how much longer before it was due to be over. And by the time it was about to finish, I couldn't even remember how we found ourselves in the flashback-that-is-the-movie to begin with!Not all that much happens in the film, and I'm OK with that. But what could have been done better perhaps would have been to show us a glimpse of life *before* the father's depression, a glimpse at the happy, active and loving family they we are told they once were. This would have contrasted well with the family that we found ourselves watching, and perhaps made us more sympathetic towards them. Bo, of course, has memories of the better days, which is why her recollection of the time in her life that we are privy to is so much more poignant. We could have benefited from the same.I had to laugh at the 'sexual content' advisory on the box (and the fact that someone commenting on the film here on IMDb bumped their rating up by 2-stars 'because of the nudity': there is 1 scene in which a 'live' breast is visible, and maybe 2 instances where we quickly see some nude sketches of the same person - none of which are sexual in context. And correct me if I'm wrong, but in all cases Bo, the young girl, is present (fully clothed at all times!).I wouldn't have mentioned it - except that it shows that people have a tendency these days to over-dramatize things. Including 'how good' this film was.On the bright side, I can say that I am thankful that Amy Brenneman's screen time was kept to under 3 minutes!This film would have been a good 'made for TV' movie. Regardless, if you haven't yet seen 'Off the Map' and are wondering if you should rent it, ask yourself first if you'd enjoy a nice relaxing evening watching a film on The Women's Network. 'Cos this film suits it perfectly.

Quickly, any film possessed of Joan Allen has a healthy shove in the right direction. Here, the screenplay by Joan Ackermann of her own play, the direction by Campbell Scott, and the unerring freshness and originality of the tale, offer enticing entertainment. A supporting cast embellishes Allen's lead beautifully, most notably Jim True-Frost, too infrequently seen on film, and Sam Elliott, who used to be around far more often. True-Frost is a member of the terrific cast of the HBO series "The Wire," applauded by critics, except, notably, those idiots who hand out establishment-infested awards. Too bad, that; but typical. And this film has drawn only that same kind of attention. A good thing, come to think of it, that.