Off the Map (2003)

70% of critics liked it
(92 reviews)
82% of users liked it
(3,224 ratings)

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,… More 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. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: PG-13, 1 hr. 45 min.
Directed By: Campbell Scott
Genres: Drama

In Theaters: Jan 22, 2003 Wide
On DVD: Aug 9, 2005
Studio: Holedigger Studios

Critic Reviews

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Quiet and quirky, yet refreshingly unpretentious, Off the Map is a welcome sojourn in a place that seems strange, yet entirely familiar.
Eric Harrison, Houston Chronicle
[A] lovely film, which hardly ever makes a move that feels wrong.
Bill Muller, Arizona Republic
A journey into an austere land of moviemaking where few artists dare go.
Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press
Surprisingly enjoyable and insightful, full of hope and generosity, with characters and a story that not only satisfy but also shed light in various directions.
Tom Long, Detroit News
It's supposed to invite you in, and it does, with eccentric characters, soft stories and a sense of spare solidity that feels more true than precious.
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
Its story meanders and doesn't build, and the pace is deadly, dictated by the rhythms of deep-feeling actors and not by a director with an urgent interest in the narrative. Then again, what narrative?
Cole Smithey, ColeSmithey.com
You'll get more entertainment value by staring into your refrigerator than you will by watching this meandering meditation on what it means to be unclear on any concept you can dream up as you sleep through the movie.
Michael Szymanski, International Press Academy
A languid, slow-moving wonderfully romantic story.
James Plath, Movie Metropolis
A quietly powerful script, solid performances, and beautiful location filming make this as pleasant a surprise for us as the film's self-sufficient family was for the IRS man.
Scott Weinberg, DVDTalk.com
A unique and quietly memorable multi-character study.
Sarah Chauncey, Reel.com
It mistakes silence for depth and contrivances for quirkiness.
Andrew Griffin, Town Talk (Alexandria, LA)
I should point out that one character that makes the biggest impact is the landscape itself.
Mark Pfeiffer, Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema
[Off the Map] takes time to breathe, to savor the present and not get bogged down in all the little things that often dominate our attention.
David Cornelius, eFilmCritic.com
Scott lets the story take its own time, revealing its secrets in its own special way.
Bob Bloom, Journal and Courier (Lafayette, IN)
Off the Map ... is a movie you soak in and examine, like a painting in an art gallery. You study its shades and lines so you can appreciate the work as a whole.
Lance Goldenberg, Weekly Planet (Tampa, FL)
...eloquently written but not overwritten, with a story that ultimately feels less like a literary construct and more like a spontaneous celebration of a few lived lives...
Shawn Levy, Oregonian
You can't get past the knowledge that you've seen it all before, and often better.
John Wirt, Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA)
Off The Map's landscape is intermittently engaging.

Read all 18 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Chris W

Ok, so the concept behind this movie is maybe better than the movie itself, and the precociousness of Valentina De Angelis's character might be just a bit too much, but other than that, I don't really have any complaints about this movie. It has a good story, interesting… More
Ok, so the concept behind this movie is maybe better than the movie itself, and the precociousness of Valentina De Angelis's character might be just a bit too much, but other than that, I don't really have any complaints about this movie. It has a good story, interesting characters, good performances and really nice cinematography. It's a smaller, quieter, indie film, and I'm really happy about that. I can't see this film being better otherwise. This movie makes me want to live in New Mexico. I already want to anyway, but this makes me want to even more.
Walter M

[font=Century Gothic]In "Off the Map", Bo(Valentina de Angelis) is a precocious 12-year old being home schooled by her hippie parents, Arlene(Joan Allen) and Charley(Sam Elliott), who are living the life of Henry David Thoreau on a self-sustaining homestead in New… More
[font=Century Gothic]In "Off the Map", Bo(Valentina de Angelis) is a precocious 12-year old being home schooled by her hippie parents, Arlene(Joan Allen) and Charley(Sam Elliott), who are living the life of Henry David Thoreau on a self-sustaining homestead in New Mexico.(The household income is only $5,000 per year.) In her spare time, Bo goes hunting, extorts samples from companies and is working on a credit card application. The main crisis in their household is Charley's deep depression.(My guess is that the film takes place in November 1980, shortly after the election of Ronald Reagan, an event that darkened a lot of lives.) The family income is low enough not to require them to pay income taxes, but they have not been filing the requisite forms, thus bringing them to the attention of the IRS. An auditor, William Gibbs(Jim True-Frost), arrives just as Arlene is weeding her garden in the nude...[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]"Off the Map" strives to be an eccentric coming-of-age story but it is listless and too earnest for its own good. The only jolt of energy comes from the arrival of an IRS auditor, never a good sign. The movie cannot escape its theatrical roots, even with beautiful location shooting. I do admire the family and how they live but the film wrongly avoids any discussion of politics. The reason many people keep their earnings down to avoid paying income taxes is so they do not support the American military. [/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]J.K. Simmons and Sam Elliott give performances so low-key that they are practically somnabulant.(I do not know if there is a way to portray depression accurately onscreen, but this is certainly not it.) Amazingly, Joan Allen hardly registers at all. At least, Valentina de Angelis, can be relied on to rescue the movie from the doldrums.[/font]
deb .

"It was inescapable, my Father's depression, like some fumigator's mist filling our lungs. It came to be the focal point of our lives that summer..." A story of a family living "off the map" trying to cope with an… More
"It was inescapable, my Father's depression, like some fumigator's mist filling our lungs. It came to be the focal point of our lives that summer..." A story of a family living "off the map" trying to cope with an extremely depressed husband and father, played by Sam Elliott. All their lives become strangely affected when they are visited by an auditor (Jim True-Frost) from the IRS. It seemed like an honest portrayal of some of the sides of depression and how family and friends are affected and react to it. Campbell Scott, the director, captured the despair, loneliness and deep love that these characters felt for one another. There was some disconnect though in the film that separated the audience, which was a shame. Brilliant performances by Sam Elliott and Joan Allen.
Sarah P

An excellent movie - great characters and succeeded in making me want to live off the map!