MovieChat Forums > Off the Map (2007) Discussion > I didn't like it

I didn't like it

posted 17 years ago by blaine3-2
6 replies | jump to latest

I like indie films, was once an indie documentary film producer myself in the 70s, but I found "Off the Map" depressing, cliche ridden and self indulgent.

Also it seemed to promote not taking responsibility for your actions. When the girl was asking for the social security number and bank account number I did not understand until she came up with a mastercharge card, I assume she used his financial info to qualify for it. Then she saddled her parents with a 4000 dollar debt.

All of the posters say that the family was completely in touch with the universe in tune with nature but that is just not true.The family relied very heavily upon one man who had a "straight" job and lifestyle. Only the mother seemed to really be in the "in tune with nature" mode. The father was nearly catatonic with depression, and the daughter could not wait to escape that "organic" isolated life.

Humans are social animals..I prefer films which show how people can live completely well adjusted lives in urban surroundings with intellectually stimulating exchanges and who pursue all kinds of creative and or political endeavors, to me that is just as healthy as the granola lifestyle without indoor plumbing.

[–] billhepworth 17 years ago

Glad the film had a message for you. Maybe that was the intention?

[–] chicago85 13 years ago

If it got you to think then you benefited. More than a diet of big slow motion explosions and squealing tires would.

[–] pmalt 13 years ago

I'm sorry to say that I didn't like it either. I felt that girl was so inauthentic, affected and contrived... having been an 11 year old girl myself with a depressed dad, I could not believe in her for one minute. She was so full of herself.

The family did not react, in my opinion, anywhere near believably to dad's depression. They talked around him, behaved as if he had some dismissable affectation rather than a dire medical emergency. They did something so incredibly ignorant and ireesponsible in asking that other fellow to lie to a psychiatrist and get dad an antidepressant that could have been the worst thing for him.

And speaking of medical emergencies, I really got off the train when the IRS man became dangerously ill and could have died, but nobody seemed to even think of getting him help. It was by mere chance that he survived. After that, I just thought of the wife especially as plain wicked. How would you like to be out there critically ill and in the hands of these people who are busy being characters in their own little internal worlds...

I know there was a certain Holden Caulfieldish rejection of the conventional going on here, but it got very dull and annoying to me. I am a big fan of underappreciated indies, usually, so I am sorry to say this. Also, their house was to die for --- panoramic windows, elegantly furnished... were they supposed to be poor?

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] bear022013-588-696101 13 years ago

If you still roam the earth,you ass,I hope God punishes you for "making light of mental illness"........it is not funny and at 6'8"300 pounds....this
Proud Black American got his blood pressure way up ya'll.You blaine3-2.I got my eyes on yo narrow ass.

[–] nammage 10 years ago

Troll?

-Nam

I'm on the road less traveled...