Rating: 
Summary: A stars B movie
Review: Weak film all the way around. Screenplay and direction are a mess.
Rating: 
Summary: Well-acted film has story problems
Review: Weaver and Moore are the standouts here, especially Moore. The husband, played by David Strathairn, is an ineffectual, cardboard character to whom one cannot relate well. Although the film holds one's attention, it is not especially fulfilling when one reaches the end. I believe this is because there is no clear relationship between the elements of conflict (the drowned child, the false charges of child abuse brought by a parent against Alice, who is the school nurse, and her jailing as a result), and of resolution. We are allowed to experience very little of Alice's feelings of guilt and remorse (maybe she didn't have them?) over the death of a child in her care, and the interplay between Alice and the child's mother, who is also Alice's best friend, is limited mainly to a single intense confrontation. The friend goes away for a while and returns to read in the papers that Alice is in jail. She's a bit too ready to come to Alice's defense, perhaps; yet she remains the most human and believable character in the film. The film is also too long and drawn out, with zero comic relief. At the end I was exhausted but unfulfilled.
Rating:
Summary: Good story, weak directing
Review: When I finished this film, I was sure that it ran over two and a half hours. In reality, it was only 125 minutes. That reveals something about the pace. If you can imagine a worm burrowing through granite, you have the idea. Actually, the story was a good one. The problem was the screenplay and the direction. This is a story of Alice Goodwin (Sigourney Weaver), a city girl who has moved to the country so her husband could try his hand at farming. However, this is no Green Acres. Alice is having difficulty coping with country life and her relationship with her two children. One day she is minding a friend's children and leaves them playing with her own children momentarily to put on her bathing suit. Upon returning, she discovers one of her friend's little girls missing and after a desperate search finds her face down in the pond. Subsequent to this tragic accident, Alice is accused of child abuse by another child who claims she molested him in her duties as school nurse. The two incidents together turn the whole town ugly as they assume she must be guilty. The story is an in-depth character study of Alice and her struggle to cope with both her guilt and innocence. The guilt is her feeling of responsibility for the little girl's drowning and the innocence is the knowledge that she is not a child abuser. Usually I enjoy complex character studies with deep conflicting emotions, but this one left me exhausted. This is not because of the story, but because of the script and the presentation by Director Scott Elliot. Far too much time was spent on scenes that weren't really interesting or relevant. The dialogue often seemed inconsistent with the characters, especially in Howard's (David Straithairn) case. The lawyer was made to look like a buffoon. Having seen Arliss Howard in a number of other films, I know he is a capable dramatic actor so I have to assume this was the director's interpretation of the character. Sigourney Weaver has received much critical acclaim for this performance, but I found it to be somewhat uneven. She was superb in parts, especially the parts where she was playing the strong woman trying to hold it all together. However, she seemed to struggle with the vulnerable parts, as if she wasn't comfortable with the character. I realize that part of the point was that Alice wasn't comfortable in her own skin and used a lot of defense mechanisms to cope, but Weaver seemed unnatural and forced in these scenes. She seems to have a lot tougher time playing weakness than strength. In that regard, Julianne Moore's performance was much better. Her breakdown scene in the woods was compelling and heartrending. David Straithairn was well cast as the self-sacrificing and supportive husband, a role with which he is well familiar. However, he too seemed uncharacteristically tentative. When veteran actors have so much trouble giving confident performances, one has to wonder if there was a disconnect between the actors and the first time director. Overall, despite some good performances and a solid story, the whole project just didn't come together and dragged ponderously from scene to scene. I rated it a 6/10. For patient viewers only.
Rating:
Summary: A Muddled Map
Review: While this movie offers a terrific performance by Julianne Moore, Signourney Weaver's highly praised interpretation of Alice Goodwin was somewhat uneven. The movie itself suffers from inconsistency, mostly because Alice's motives and attitudes aren't always easy to interpret. It's a frustrating experience, watching "A Map of the World." For every powerhouse scene, there's an awkward, muted one. In the end, I don't know how well Weaver conveyed what Alice was supposed to have gained from her troubling experiences. She still seemed somewhat caustic and distant. Was it the screenplay or the direction? Whatever the reaason, this is an uneven and frustrating film, full of good moments and weak ones.
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