THE MAP OF TINY PERFECT THINGS (2021)
Starring Kathryn Newton, Kyle Allen, Jermaine Harris, Anna Mikami, Josh Hamilton, Cleo Fraser, Al Madrigal, Jorja Fox, Teance Blackburn, Mia Lovell, Vanessa Padla, Lisa VanAmburg, Daniel Scott Lumpkin Jr., Lily Lumpkin, Emmett Ferguson, Douglas DeLisle, Dyer Scott Lumpkin, Chris Best and Lydia Houston.
Screenplay by Lev Grossman.
Directed by Ian Samuels.
Distributed by Amazon Studios. 99 minutes. Rated PG-13.
Groundhog Day may be one of the most influential films of the last century. At the very least, it has spawned a whole slew of imitators to its (then) unique plotline. The whole stuck reliving the same day idea has been expanded from romantic comedy into mysteries, teen angst, horror, sci fi, fantasies, and of course, more romantic comedies. Some have been good. Some, not so much. But it’s such an intriguing concept that most of them are at least interesting, though none, obviously, have the thrill of uniqueness that Groundhog Day brought with it.
The Map of Tiny Perfect Things is rather explicit in its tribute to Groundhog Day – at a few points it even has the hero Mark (Kyle Allen) discussing the Bill Murray film in comparison to his own situation. The way that it changes things up a little bit is it has two people stuck in the same time loop and running into each other.
The film sort of starts out seeming like a teen romantic comedy, but then morphs into more of an introspective YA drama about appreciating the beauty and relationships in life.
“We’re castaways. Except that instead of an island, we’re stuck in a day,” says Margaret (Kathryn Newton), Mark’s partner in temporal dislocation.
Thus, they team up to figure out what is going on, and more specifically to pass the endless amount of time. They pass the time finding “tiny perfect things,” little moments of splendor, excitement and joy that stand out during the endless hours of an otherwise mundane life. In doing so, they learn about life and they learn about themselves and their families and friends.
Some of the science of the situation is a little questionable – she found her perfect ending but why was he dragged forward in time with her? – but then again if you try to put rules on something like this you will miss anything wonderful that can come from it. (Apologies if that feels like a spoiler, but come on, all these stories have them finally making it out of the time loop, otherwise it would never end.)
However, all in all, The Map of Tiny Perfect Things is one of the better time loop films.
Jay S. Jacobs
Copyright ©2021 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: February 12, 2021.