Cady's Take:

Set in the mid-1970s, we find hippie couple Charley (Sam Elliott) and Arlene (Joan Allen), who are ­living off the desert land in New Mexico with their precocious 12-year-old daughter, Bo (Valentina de Angelis). Their house has no phone or electricity, and they hunt for and grow their own food.

As the movie opens we see that Charley has unexpectedly fallen into a crippling depression. Nearly catatonic, his main activity is drinking water; he needs the fluids, he reasons, because he cries a lot. There's no obvious reason for his depression, which may be a chemical imbalance, but the family (along with a family friend played winningly by character actor J.K. Simmons) stumbles through it determinedly.

Further difficulties arise when William Gibbs (Jim True-Frost) from the IRS stumbles onto their property wondering why they haven't filed tax returns for the past seven years. Basically, he comes, he sees Arlene naked, he samples the veggies, and verily, he becomes saved.

''Off the Map" sometimes rambles without apparent purpose, yet it packs quite an emotional impact. Some may find it difficult to attain a handhold on this film, especially during the first hour, but I think the patient viewers will be happy they stuck around. This is a character study more than a forward-moving drama. But because the people are all very amusing and intriguing, it never feels boring.

And, despite the fact that I found Bo to be a little too wise to be true, she was a pivotal aspect of this film playing the keen observer of life with a rambunctious imagination. At points she saves the viewer with her teeming bundle of energy in a time where almost all other inertia seems vacuumed away. I hope to see this young actress again.

"Off The Map" is one of those hard-to-review movies because it isn't as much about plot as it is about characters, and the depiction of a slice of life for a particular group of people. You can stop reading completely and go right to our index to find a different kind of movie if you are not into character-driven films with little to offer in the way of set-up/conflict resolution structure.

On the other hand, if you like character driven movies, and you are a fan of either Joan Allen or Sam Elliot (both of whom I happen to love) you might want to give "Off The Map" a shot. I can't lie - this movie isn't for everyone. The story involves a family who lives "off the map" - they live off the land, and get the rest of what they need from the dump. Their home is way, way off the beaten path. They live their lives in a breathtaking and remote area of New Mexico. Arlene (Allen) and Charley (Elliot) are raising a precocious daughter Bo, played in her youth by newcomer Valentina de Angelis and her adult counterpart (played by Amy Brenneman of television's "Judging Amy"). Narrated as a coming-of-age tale, the movie is about the characters, not about what happens to them. It is about how what happens to them shapes them as people. It is not satisfying in the way a "we got the bad guys" or "we escaped the natural disaster and saved the planet/country/damsel-in-distress" movie is satisfying. It satisfies our need to see that we are like other people who are on the surface, very unlike ourselves.

I'm going to ask someone to take a risk on "Off the Map". You may not be up for it, but I think you will be better for the attempt. My personal rating for this movie would hover up near four buckets of popcorn, but I have to consider a more general audience so I'm only going to give it three. Check it out and tell me if I'm wrong!