Alice Goodwin (Sigourney Weaver) is a school nurse and overwhelmed wife to Howard (David Strathairn) with two daughters on a Wisconsin dairy farm. Theresa Collins (Julianne Moore) leaves her daughters with Alice to babysit. Little Lizzy falls into the lake unattended and eventually dies. Everybody turns against Alice when the police arrests her for abusing student Robbie, the son of Carole Mackessy (Chloë Sevigny).There are some terrific performances in this movie. Obviously Weaver is doing the majority of the heavy lifting. She's full of great little nuances. Moore does some powerful acting as a mother who lost her daughter. Strathairn does the most interesting pathetic husband. He does it without any malice. The movie does have a couple of awkward moments that are probably best left out or changed. They build up to a kiss between Howard and Theresa so much that it's annoying. The whole section detracts from the drama turning it into melodrama. The other section is Alice hitting herself. It's a little weird and work as a detour. The movie is better off to get on with the trial by that point. Overall, this is a good movie with three great performances.

At the heart of Scott Elliot's drab, soapy screen version of Jane Hamilton's novel is a terrific performance by Sigourney Weaver as a woman accused of child abuse. She is a school nurse who hates her job, is unhappy in her marriage and in whose care her best friend's daughter drowns. Jail is a kind of redemption. The film ought to shake you up, but Elliot imbues it with a kind of cold, clinical detachment. It's like a blueprint for emotion and, while Weaver is very powerful, the material never touches you. As the friend whose daughter dies, Julianne Moore touches a few nerves and David Strathairn is very fine as Weaver's dull, uncomprehending, caring husband. But they are all acting in a vacuum. You don't care what happens to anybody.

I really tried so hard to like this film - but in the end I had to concede: we did not get on. It turned out to be one of the most disappointing pieces of 'drama' I've seen in a long time. The script is terribly hammy, in fact there are some truly apalling moments (the worst being Sigourney Weaver's declaration 'let's go on Oprah!' - I still can't work out if that was a joke) The acting (with one notable exception) is pretty mediocre, which is not helped by formulaic, humdrum direction and some truly shocking child actors. Why give kids who can't act dialogue? It undermines the dramatic potential of a film. As an aspiring screenwriter, I am constantly told to 'make every scene earn its place in your film' - well, there are countless here that could have been omitted. I have seen better made for TV films. The whole thing seems a terribly overlong excersise in 'how can we pull on the heartstrings of the Academy voters?' Luckily even they chose not to acknowledge it. 'A Map of the World' has, as I said, one redeeming feature: the presence of the gorgeous, versatile Julianne Moore. Her compelling scene of emotional breakdown following the death of her child in the woods is, in my opinion, worth the price of the film alone. What a shame that they didn't cast her in the lead role. With mediocre material like this, the only hope of transcending it is with a gifted actress of Julianne's talents - however I fear that even she could not have saved it. One to avoid - but worth it (just) for Julianne Moore.

Sigourney Weaver offers a marvellous performance in this film, playing mother and school nurse Alice Goodwin, whose world is torn apart after the death of a friend's child on her property, and the lodging of a sexual assault charge by the mother of one of the students she deals with on a regular basis.This is most definitely NOT a light movie. It has adult themes, and some very troubling subject matter. As good as Weaver is, the supporting cast also offers some very powerful moments. David Strathairn portrays Howard Goodwin, Alice's husband, as he helplessly watches the community turn against the entire family, and as he struggles with the decisions that need to be made to free Alice. Julianna Moore (as Theresa Collins, the mother whose child died while being watched by Alice) is very believable as the grieving mother, struggling with her anger toward Alice over her daughter's death, and yet also convinced that the assault charges against her are ridiculous. The scenes between Strathairn and Collins, both playing vulnerable characters dealing with circumstances completely beyond their control, are raw with emotion. The only performance I found truly disappointing was that of Arliss Howard as attorney Paul Reverdy. I didn't find him believable in the role.All in all, though, this is a strong movie, and well deserves an 8/10.