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The
Martha's Vineyard Times is a weekly publication.
May 26 - June 1, 2005 Edition
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Film May 26, 2005 There is no new Film story this week. Motherhood off the map May 5, 2005 By Brooks Robards
The Groden family lives literally “off the map,” 10 miles from civilization and without phone, electricity, or indoor plumbing. Charley (Sam Elliott) and Arlene (Joan Allen) barter for what worldly goods they need, home-school their 11-year-old daughter Cecilia Rose, aka Bo (Valentina de Angelis), and savor the glories of the New Mexico landscape, which if poles apart from the Vineyard is similarly idyllic. Their annual income hovers around $5,000. The catch is that Charley has gotten so depressed he can't do much except cry. A man once able to fix anything and happy to have his daughter trail along with him whether working or fishing, Charley has become almost catatonic. While unfortunate, his condition will not depress the moviegoer for long. Arlene holds the family together, as well as the sometimes meandering, slow-paced plot of the movie. Played by Allen with subtlety and assurance, Arlene radiates a calm and thoughtfulness that, rather than becoming saccharine, are grounded in her solid sense of self. She is utterly unlike the more brittle Hollywood version of motherhood, currently represented by the angry wife/mother she plays in “The Up Side of Anger,” now in theaters. Arlene treats her husband's illness with equanimity, good humor, and inventiveness, warning him to tell her where he's going after she wakes up to find him AWOL in the middle of the night, and carrying on a one-sided conversation with him after he locks himself in the family's outhouse. Nor does Arlene fit the passive, saintly stereotype of motherhood. She appreciates the growing resentments and sense of isolation of her daughter, Bo, played with precocious skill by de Angelis. Arlene quietly disputes Bo's disparagements of the family's friend George (J. K. Simmons). When Bo runs off in a fit of anger, Arlene follows and makes sure all is well. She takes her parenting seriously, rather than trying to substitute friendship. After I.R.S. auditor William Gibbs (Jim True-Frost) shows up, he discovers Arlene buck naked in the garden, gets stung by a bee, and develops a high fever that keeps him semi-comatose at the Grodens' home for days. When Gibbs manages to get up again, he has fallen in love with Arlene and found a new calling as an artist. No hot-blooded adultery here: Arlene essentially ignores her houseguest's ardor. So much for high-concept Hollywood plotting. The intrinsically comic absurdity of the I.R.S. auditing a family for making too little money keeps the viewer amused and curious about what will happen among this odd assortment of people. It also offers numerous gentle critiques of American culture. Many of them involve the Grodens' daughter. Bo is pictured reading such heavy tomes as, “A History of Spain” at home, but she'd rather go to school like normal kids. She keeps the family supplied with Moon Pies and similar goodies by writing letters to the companies involved and complaining of a defect like insect wings in the product. Her letters lead to the delivery of cases of junk food as apologies. The movie has a seventies feel in such tangible indicators as the family's “dumptique” costumes and in the funky house where they live. Use of narration by a grown-up Bo (Vineyard summer visitor Amy Brenneman) contributes a feeling of nostalgia that helps consolidate the plot but edges it towards sentimentality. “Off the Map” will never win a Best-Picture Oscar nomination, but its rewards, which have to do with the caliber of its acting and its willingness to ignore cinematic formulas, are genuine. It's also hard to imagine another movie where depression has been treated with such laughable lightness. When Bo finally receives the credit card she has applied for, the results, which Vineyarders in particular may appreciate, are astonishing and absurd. The Grodens are not like most American families, but Arlene, their core and their glue, offers a tribute to mothers taken for granted everywhere. Brooks Robards has published 10 books, 3 of which are poetry, taught film for 20 years at Westfield State College, and frequently writes about film for The Times. |
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