![]() ![]() But eventually the endlessly ironic, ceaselessly self-mocking teen-speak gets a little repetitive, and the YA tropes – boy, aren’t dads kind of adorably clueless! – are compounded by male screenwriter clichés. Kathryn Newton brings a nice, alert honesty to the super-smart Margaret, and screenwriter Lev Grossman’s dialogue is sharp, at first. Margaret, meanwhile, has other, more serious things on her mind – and, perhaps, a reason for not wanting a real tomorrow to ever come. The cluelessly self-involved Mark is still focused on getting Margaret to kiss him. The two tentatively join forces, but remain somewhat at odds. Unlike him, though, she has given the situation some thought, and decided it has something to do with the fourth dimension. The Map of Tiny Perfect Things eventually switches things up a bit by bringing on Margaret, who is uninterested in Mark, but in the same temporal predicament. He just wants to win the lottery, pull some pranks and maybe land a girlfriend. The crucial difference, and critical problem, is that unlike Bill Murray’s stuck-in-a-rut weather forecaster in Groundhog Day, Mark doesn’t use that knowledge to grow as a person, to try and perfect himself without all that messy reincarnation stuff. In fact, he’s kind of a cheater – having lived out this same day, over and over again, dozens of times before, he already has the answers. Unfortunately, as we soon find out, Mark isn’t magical. What kind of superboy is this kid? It’s a brightly shot, terrifically edited beginning and although Kyle Allen’s smug confidence begins to grate early – he’s like a young Joseph Gordon-Levitt, minus the vulnerability – it suggests viewers are in for some sort of fun fantasy. Something falls, he’s there to catch it someone starts to slip into the pool, he’s there to save them. The film does start with a bravura opening sequence, as Mark shows off his charmed existence. ![]() Undemanding, pretty and determinedly family-friendly Premiering February 12 on Amazon Prime, it’s aimed at pandemically bored teens, and unlikely find an audience much beyond that demographic. The Map of Tiny Perfect Things wants to be a Groundhog Day for the YA crowd, but after recent rewind fantasies such as Palm Springs, Happy Death Day, and Edge Of Tomorrow, it’s the audience that’s liable to get a feeling of been there, seen that. Day after day, it’s the same-old, same-old squared: no surprises, no revelations, no point. Margaret (Kathryn Newton) and Mark (Kyle Allen) are stuck in a time loop, with everything they do feeling like something they’ve done a hundred times before. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |