I wasn't looking when I found "Off the Map". It was the afternoon following a major power outage, and I was headed to Chicago to visit my love only a few short days later. I'd gotten the DVD from my local library, and was debating whether or not to watch it before it had to be returned the following day. I can't express how glad I am that I took the time when I did.Like many of my favorite films, a young person is at the center of things. Bo (played by Valentina de Angelis) is tied up in all the ideas and possibilities of growing up, lost into her own world where few people live, and none anywhere close to her own age. This is a film fully populated with great actors giving wonderful performances. I loved Joan Allen, Sam Elliott, J.K. Simmons, and Jim True-Frost for the humanity they get across here. How they interact is unpredictable and constantly believable. The director (Campbell Scott) gives them a ton of breathing room. The scene where Joan Allen's character stands naked in the garden staring down a coyote happens seemingly outside of time, a triangle between her, the animal, and the arrival of a stranger who is shocked to find her in this state. This all happens in total silence until a bee sting ends the moment.It's small scenes of beauty like these, perfectly photographed by Juan Ruiz Anchía (who also shot "The Stone Boy"), that keeps the rhythm flowing, like large stones in a winding river pushing the film along. When "Off the Map" reached its end, I was in tears. Not because of a single sad thing that occurred, but for the final emotional release. I was set free in watching this. Lifted up and brought back to life. I owe this film all the beauty of one dark December day I'll never forget

This is so difficult to describe, it is 'off the radar'. If anyone ever wanted to make a film unlike any other, without the slightest affectation, and as naturally as milking a cow, this is it. It is a miracle of difference amidst a sea of sameness. The film is about a family who live miles from the nearest road in Taos County, New Mexico, and who exist with practically no money. Even their dentist is paid by work done on his fruit trees. They have no phone, no electricity, and are 'off the map' in every sense. As such, they are rare survivals of a pre-commercial and pre-consumer world. Naturally, bureaucracy wants to destroy them or at least make them submit to 'a penalty' in the form of fines for not filing income tax forms on non-existent income. An IRS man arrives, having taken four days to find their house in the middle of nowhere, but he is 'sucked into the quicksand' of their lives and never leaves. He is played with great sensitivity, pathos, and whimsy by Jim True-Frost. He has one of those 'Mister Nobody' faces, but by becoming an individual he becomes a somebody, and an artist. The central roles in the film are played by Joan Allen as the mother and an eleven year-old girl, Valentina de Angelis, as the daughter. They are both spectacularly good. The kid is funny, alarmingly clever, and irresistibly charming. Joan Allen as the mother is a commanding presence who through the force of her character and personality holds together both the fictional household and the actual film. (Is she really part Hopi Indian, or is that just in the story? The boundaries are blurred.) This delightful fable began life as a play and was expanded into a screenplay by Joan Ackermann. May she prosper! Campbell Scott the director has given it his all, and his all is a lot. In fact, they have all given it their all, and their total all is enough to feed our dreams for years to come. Sam Elliott is magnificent as the depressed father, who without saying much is nevertheless fully eloquent in the misery of his despair, and J. K. Simmons put his own touch on the character of George the friend. Even the coyote does well, and the animal handlers certainly delivered. This is more than just a movie, it is more even than a 'statement', it is a new wrinkle to the Universe. Let's keep that wrinkle going. Tell all your friends.

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.