A Map of the World | | Cast : | Sigourney Weaver, Julianne Moore | | Director : | Scott Elliott (II) | | Studio : | Usa Films | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned | | Released Date : | January 21, 2000 | | DVD Released Date : | May 01, 2001 | | Language : | English (Dubbed) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | June 12, 2005 | | Summary | Pare it down | Content
 | Sigourney Weaver gives an excellent performance as Alice Goodwin, a woman who undergoes trying times when a friend's child dies while under her care, followed soon after by charges of child abuse against her by members of the small community in which she lives. This is a well-made, sincere film, but I couldn't help feeling that it was just trying to pile on too much drama. I was frustrated by the introduction of the child abuse angle and Alice's subsequent prison stay because I felt that the film had never dealt adequately with the horror of the dead child and all of the emotional consequences of it. The parents simply moved away so we could get into the next crisis before their return. Jane Hamilton probably handled this more successfully in her novel, which was the basis of this film, because she didn't have the time constraints of a movie. |
| Rating | | | Date | March 24, 2005 | | Summary | excellent | Content
| I honestly found this movie to be disarming, mostly because of Sigourney Weaver's performance as an unapologetic and perhaps too honest and too direct woman whose very regular life unravels under tragic consequences and the scrutiny that comes afterward. Weaver plays Alice, a school nurse, wife of a Wisconsin farmer, who comes off as coarse, abrasive and unmannered. This makes very little difference at first, except that she might be something of an outsider. This, however, bears a great deal of difference, when, while babysitting for her best friend Theresa (Julianne Moore), one of Theresa's children drowns. Ultimately Alice is scrutinized following this accident, and later is held legally accountable for charges of child abuse made against her.
The story delves very deeply into the three-dimensional characters in this film; a psychological and adult film that probes various dimensions of its character's lives very effectively. Weaver's Alice particularly has the greatest burden to bear, the most weakness and frailty but at the same time the most strength. She is stripped to bare bones (from a psychological standpoint) in jail, and though she has to be strong and resolute to live there, the aftermath of the events reveal immediate impacts on her family (her husband has been content to run the farm and leave the daily life business to her; suddenly he is confronted with rearing their children, whom he hardly seems to know, and coming up with ways to handle the mounting legal bills, etc.) Relationships are tested in the film (both relationships people have with themselves as well as relationships between people), and the performances delivered by Weaver, David Strathairn as her husband and Moore as the grieving mother, Theresa, are deeply felt, human performances.
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| Rating | | | Date | November 03, 2004 | | Summary | Gripping story, great music, few flaws | Content
| I actually bought this movie because I enjoyed the soundtrack CD by Pat Metheny so much, and because the reviews here on Amazon are favorable. I got more than I expected from this movie. It's so good that Metheny's music is overwhelmed by the drama. I won't go into summarizing the plot, as several other reviewers have done that very well.
If only Sigourney had kept her clothes on, this would be a perfect film for almost the whole family. She delivers an excellent performance, as do Julianne Moore and David Strathairn. The gratuitous sex scenes and home sex video banter amongst the couples should have been left on the cutting room floor to improve the movie. I saw enough of Sigourney in the movie Alien...not that I'm complaining!
This movie highlights how pack-driven we as a people can be in damning innocent people. You see it often in newspapers and magazines. That said, if I were in her place I would be racked with guilt at having let the little girl out of my sight long enough for her to reach that body of water next to their house. It's not like the pond just suddenly appeared at dawn. Heck, a fence only costs a couple of hundred bucks to put up yourself.
Buy it, enjoy it, have a good cry, but keep your finger ready on the fast forward button to skip the aging-actress skin scenes. |
| Rating | | | Date | July 17, 2003 | | Summary | The Terrain of Tragedy. | Content
| There isn't a false note nor a dishonest scene in this drama of tragedy and its aftermath. A wonderful cast, led by Sigourney Weaver in a superb performance, play recognizably flawed and human characters coping with the tragic death of a child, and then, later, arrest and imprisonment for child abuse. Rarely has the stresses and strains of child-rearing and married life been presented so honestly. Sigourney Weaver's Alice Goodwin is a farm wife and mother and part-time school nurse. She is often exhausted and frustrated with her children, the eldest girl being a real pill at times, and bored with the routines of family life. Her husband is a decent, taciturn man, content to deal with the farming and leave the children's need for constant attention and domestic chores to his wife to handle. Weaver's best friend and neighbor is Theresa, wonderfully played by Julianne Moore, is the perfect wife and mother with a house neat-as-a-pin in contrast to the chaos of Weaver's. A tragic accident sets in motion a series of events that land Weaver in jail, and upsets all the relationships and the world of these very decent people. What is so refreshing in this film is that all the characters are not cliches. Weaver's Alice is a sharply intelligent, sometimes abrasive, prickly personality. She does not submit humbly to her imprisonment and in fact becomes even more difficult. David Strathairn as Howard her husband, is a man overwhelmed by the sudden responsiblity for his children and household. There is a nice turn by Arliss Howard as Weaver's attorney, self-amused and egotistic at the legal games he plays. Julianne Moore's Theresa is believable in her stricken grief. This is a sharply observed study of real people under stress and passing through the kind of events that change lives forever. It is worth your time alone to see Sigourney Weaver's masterful embodiment of this beautiful, difficult, ornery and truthful woman. But her marvelous performance is matched and ably supported by her co-stars. There may be missing that "big" cathartic moment to round out the picture, this film opting to reveal its truths more quietly and matter-of-factly, but it has something to say about how people cope with and are transformed by tragedy and tribulation, and that makes it reach farther than most of the fare we get. A solid 4-1/2 stars. Worthwhile. |
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