Map of the Human Heart
| Year: | 1993 |
| Director: | Vincent Ward |
| Cast: | Jason Scott Lee, Patrick Bergin, John Cusack, Ben Mendelsohn |
The life and times of an Inuit boy Anik (Scott Lee) taken from his home because of sickness by the adventurer Walter Russell (Bergin) and integrated into western society.
Partly a fable about staying true to your heritage while a different world beckons, but mostly just a biography of the richly detailed life of a single little boy who could never dream he'd grow up and go to war.
After falling in love, making friends, learning about loss and fear in the western world, Anik joins the air force, believing he's doing the right thing in fighting the enemy, but the climax - of his wandering the ruined streets of Dresden - sees him question everything he's been told after such brutality.
One long flashback as the elderley Anik tells his life to mapmaker Cusack (now that he's been written off as a stupid old drunk hanging around a far northern oil well complex and forgotten), there isn't a strong point, just several smaller ones - but mostly it's just the lavish canvas of an extraordinary life.
Well acted and directed, not enough to keep you riveted the whole time but interesting.
Partly a fable about staying true to your heritage while a different world beckons, but mostly just a biography of the richly detailed life of a single little boy who could never dream he'd grow up and go to war.
After falling in love, making friends, learning about loss and fear in the western world, Anik joins the air force, believing he's doing the right thing in fighting the enemy, but the climax - of his wandering the ruined streets of Dresden - sees him question everything he's been told after such brutality.
One long flashback as the elderley Anik tells his life to mapmaker Cusack (now that he's been written off as a stupid old drunk hanging around a far northern oil well complex and forgotten), there isn't a strong point, just several smaller ones - but mostly it's just the lavish canvas of an extraordinary life.
Well acted and directed, not enough to keep you riveted the whole time but interesting.