The Map That Leads To You film is a weepy that takes the shortcut route to wrest emotion. It may not be in the same class as The Fault in Our Stars but it’s a serviceable experience nevertheless.
The Map That Leads To You review
Film: The Map That Leads To You
Cast: Madelyn Cline, K.J. Apa, Sofia Wylie, Madison Thompson, Orlando Norman, Josh Lucas, Karl-El Santos, Diego Ross
Director: Lasse Hallström
Rating: * * 1/2
Runtime: 96 min.
Lasse Hallström’s latest film, The Map That Leads to You, is a copiously affecting, but largely forgettable second-rate weepy.
This film, based on a novel by J.P. Monninger, has recent college grad and soon-to-be banker Heather (Madelyn Cline) and charming vagabond Jack (KJ Apa) embark on a whirlwind romance following their chance meeting on the midnight train to Barcelona. They apparently broke ice quite easily because they both were reading Ernest Hemingway’s Great American Novel The Sun Also Rises set in Spain.
Jack goes along with Heather and her girl gang, including Amy (Madison Thompson) and Connie (Sofia Wylie), experience some fun and some misadventures in Spain before they split up to go their own way.
Heather decides to follow Jack who is on a quest to visit every place in Spain and Portugal, his great-grandfather wrote about in his journal while serving as a soldier during World War II. They fall in love along the way and all too obviously, terminal illness plays spoilsport.
The cinematography by Spanish DP Elías M. Félix is picture postcard stunning and makes every visual worthy of an instagram post. Hallström and editors Brad Turner and Douglas Crise give the film an interesting look using split screens, snapshots, cell-phone footage and every other trick in the book to make this film an ‘insta’ happening. The European setting is the highlight here.
The script by Les Bohem and Vera Herbert is riddled by cliches and facile discussions on topics that drag the narrative down. The film has nothing new to convey about romance or life thereof. The characters are rather vapid and stereotypical and appear to be travelling through without any care for money spent even though they all come from working-class backgrounds. There’s not much strength in their romance either.
Apa and Cline make for a charming couple and their performances complement each other. Josh Lucas, who plays Heather’s Texan father, doesn’t make much of an impression.
The Map That Leads To You is a weepy that takes the shortcut route to wrest emotion. It may not be in the same class as The Fault in Our Stars but it’s a serviceable experience nevertheless. Nothing unforgettable about it.
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