The Reel Review
Kyle Allen and Kathryn Newton (Blockers, Freaky) star in this Amazon original fantasy/rom-com about a couple of teens stuck in a Groundhog Day-type time loop. They start mapping the tiny perfect moments they witness in their small town in the hope it will break them free from the cycle. Um, okaaaaaaayyyy…
Odd premise aside, the time loop formula is a hackneyed one that has been done to death, most recently (and better) in 2020’s Palm Springs. But thanks to the likable charm of its leads, the predictable film does have some tender scenes and sweet montages, all set to a catchy soundtrack of alternative rock and pop tunes. There just aren’t enough of them.
The rest of the film is a real slog of babbling chats about the meaning (or meaningless) of life and highly-choreographed, painfully staged, show off scenes to illustrate the predictable repetitiveness of their lives. Somewhere in this film is a really sweet message about the importance of savoring life’s precious moments, it is just buried in a lot of trite gimmicks and silliness, and the feeling we’ve done this all before.
REEL FACTS
• Trained ballet dancer and acrobat Kyle Allen (American Horror Story: Apocalypse, XX) will star in Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, scheduled for release in December 2021.
• Jorja Fox, who plays the dying mother in The Map of the Tiny Perfect Things, starred as Sara Sidle in the hit TV show CSI: Crime Scene Investigators.
• The Map of Tiny Perfect Things was filmed in Fairhope and Mobile, Alabama.
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