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Map of the World, A
First Look Pictures Releasing


5.0

based on 25 reviews
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How did we calculate this?

based on 2 votes
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MPAA RATING: R for some sexuality and language

Starring Sigourney Weaver, Julianne Moore, David Strathairn, Dara Perlmutter, Arliss Howard, Kayla Perlmutter, Deborah Lobban, and Chloë Sevigny

A woman (Weaver) lives with her husband and two daughters on a dairy farm in a small Wisconsin community. After an accident on her property involving a friend's (Moore) child, the town turns against her.

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Jane Hamilton (novel) Peter Hedges Polly Platt
DIRECTED BY:	Scott Elliott
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: September 19, 2000 Video: September 26, 2000 Theatrical: December 3, 1999
RUNNING TIME:	125 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Stack

Sigourney Weaver is so daring and amazing, her veracity is at times painful to behold.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

An accomplished film that continually takes us beyond our first impressions of people and situations.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The movie is not tidy. Like its heroine, it doesn't follow the rules.

Portland Oregonian Diana Abu-Jaber

The two lead actresses are exquisite in their divergent ways.

Film.com Ernest Hardy

It's provocative and very moving, filled with some of the strongest performances of the year.

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

Worth navigating for its refusal to play to the crowd. There's certainly nothing safe or sweet about Weaver's performance.

Austin Chronicle Russell Smith

One of the truest-seeming movies I've seen in some time and as one of the most odd and haunting.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

All of the characters in this story of love, guilt and redemption feel like real people, facing real dilemmas, and you truly care about what happens to them

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Gives three first-rate actors a chance to stretch, and they do.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

What makes this film truly chilling is the fact first-time feature filmmaker Scott Elliott and his writers somehow make every step of this descent harrowingly believable.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Weaver is superb in a movie as scary and provocative as the timely subject it explores.

Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson

Sigourney Weaver and Julianne Moore share their pain in a depressing World.

LA Weekly Hazel-Dawn Dumpert

If director Scott Elliott falters, it's only in the spots where he tries to comment on her (Alice's) persecution without being complicit in it.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Director Scott Elliott, in his feature-film debut, is especially perceptive about what goes on at the edges during deepening family crises, literally at the borders of the screen.

TNT RoughCut Don Kaye

Weaver herself inhabits her character with confidence and passion, although she's inconsistent in spots.

USA Today Mike Clark

The movie Weaver has to carry has so many nagging imperfections that Academy Award attention looks like a long shot.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

If it's not one of the five best of 1999, it's a personal best for Weaver, and that's pretty good.

The New York Times Staff

Something disturbing has happened to this story en route to the screen.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

This eerily dry drama bravely attempts to show, without resorting to the literal staging of contradictory scenarios, how much perceptions of the same situation can vary.

Film.com Elizabeth Weitzman

There's not a single moment when you forget it's Weaver; she always seems to be inhabiting this poor character's soul for her own purposes.

Slate David Edelstein

Occasionally dissonant, but it's remarkably cleareyed.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

All the right intentions but never overcomes the essential problem of showing what's going on inside people's heads.

Village Voice Jessica Winter

Scott Elliott's palsied directorial debut, from a mine shaft-ridden script, is a sick joke, and Weaver's part in it screams of temporary insanity.

San Francisco Examiner Wesley Morris

For all the blathering, heavy-handed pathos, we might as well be watching the Lifetime cable channel.

Chicago Tribune Barbara Shulgasser

Strangely unmoving. So what went wrong?

The average user rating for this movie is 5.0 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Ean C. gave it a 10:
One of those movies that makes you wonder what the Oscars are awarded for when this does not collect a thing. Both Sigourney Weaver and Julianne Moore are in parts that one would almost expect to be reversed. The jerkiness plays into the entire evaluation of Weavers mental state.

Greg G. gave it a 0:
A collage of devastating, life altering events, but lacks the unity to pull the film together. Sigourney Weaver's character is so extreme as to be unbelievable. A very unpleasant experience. Not recommended. Don't trust the critics!

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Map of the World, A First Look Pictures Releasing

Map of the World, A
First Look Pictures Releasing