Off the Map
Campbell Scott directed this offbeat comedy drama about a free-thinking family who find themselves confronted by the more regimented outside world. Bo Groden (Valentina d'Angelis) is an 11-year-old girl growing up as part of a decidedly eccentric family in a small town in New Mexico. Bo's father, Charley (Sam Elliott), has fallen into a deep depression for reasons no one can understand, while her mother, Arlene (Joan Allen), holds the household together, raising most of their food in her vegetable garden, which she prefers to tend in the nude. Bo, meanwhile, satisfies her sweet tooth by writing candy companies claiming to have had problems with their products, which usually results in a box of fresh goodies. While the Grodens get by through living within simple means, one day an Internal Revenue Agent appears at their door, wanting to know why the family hasn't paid income tax for several years -- and not believing there has been no appreciable income for so many years. Off the Map was screened in competition at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. more..
Director: Campbell Scott
Starring: Joan Allen, Sam Elliott, Valentina de Angelis, Jim True-Frost, J.K. Simmons
Scott has the courage to let the imaginative story unfold at its own leisurely pace, and it's not surprising that the acting is excellent, considering that he's among the very best American screen actors.
Off the Map is visually beautiful as a portrait of lives in the middle of emptiness, but it's not about the New Mexico scenery. It's about feelings that shift among people who are good enough, curious enough or just maybe tired enough to let that happen.
Rambles without apparent purpose, and yet it blooms in emotional impact as it goes.
One of those sweet, intelligent, nicely made films.
The movie's sense of place is hypnotic, but there's more to it than gorgeous images -- Campbell Scott's astute direction; Joan Allen's beautifully laconic performance; a sense of lively, if occasionally pretentious, inquiry into the wellsprings of art.
Best Independent
Golden Trailer Awards (2005)
Best Drama
Sarasota Film Festival (2004)
Campbell Scott
Taos Talking Picture Festival (2003)
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