Quiet and quirky, yet refreshingly unpretentious, Off the Map is a welcome sojourn in a place that seems strange, yet entirely familiar.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Apr 28, 2005

[A] lovely film, which hardly ever makes a move that feels wrong.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Apr 21, 2005

A journey into an austere land of moviemaking where few artists dare go.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 14, 2005

It's so focused on the subject that the downer mood becomes distressingly contagious.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 8, 2005

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.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 8, 2005

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.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Apr 8, 2005

| Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 3, 2005

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?

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 1, 2005

If you've ever stood under a night sky and felt the earth turning beneath you -- and felt insignificant and elated at the same time -- Campbell Scott has your number.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 27, 2005

Ms. Ackerman writes graceful dialogue and strong characters, while Mr. Scott, directing his third feature, has an actor-turned-director's regard for both the dialogue and the characterization.

| Original Score: A- | Mar 24, 2005

Has the feel of a coming-of-age novel.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 17, 2005

This is a character study more than a forward-moving drama, plopped down with exquisite photographic care in a beautiful New Mexico desert, and starring good actors who make a feast of their flavorful roles.

| Original Score: B | Mar 16, 2005

I think Campbell Scott's a talented filmmaker, very good cast, but the story up and down and up and down and all around.

Full Review | Mar 14, 2005

It takes a rugged survivalist mentality to sit through 108 minutes of Off the Map.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 11, 2005

Perhaps the most evocative movie of the new year.

Full Review | Mar 11, 2005

Scott's work as a director lacks the sense of vivid urgency he's displayed as an actor.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 11, 2005

Campbell Scott has made sure that every frame of this lushly beautiful film reflects the potent, almost mystical, effect the region's plateaus, canyons and deserts have on their human inhabitants.

| Mar 11, 2005

There's a collective scintillation about its rich, distinctive characters, narrative serendipity and ineffable magic.

| Mar 11, 2005

In a stealthy and touching way, it shows how people can work on one another.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 11, 2005

Slow, ruminative and dusted with wisps of folksy humor.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Mar 10, 2005