Off the Map (2005)

'OFF' WE GO A pretty, well-acted character study

Off the Map began as an actorly play written by Joan Ackermann and is now an actorly indie directed by Campbell Scott from Ackermann's screenplay. The film never quite escapes the confines of the thing it was before — the piquant dialogue hangs in the air like lines of piquant dialogue — but perhaps that shouldn't matter: 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. The cast includes Jim True-Frost as an IRS agent with artistic talents, Sam Elliott as a depressed iconoclast, and (in contrast with her role in The Upside of Anger) Joan Allen as the iconoclast's wife, a radiant hippie-goddess of tolerance.