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   Final Film Critique: 
   A New And Accurate Map of the
   World

   Director: Ryan Alexander
   Expected Rating: PG-13 for sex & language
   Distribution: None
   Budget: $9,500
   Genre: Romantic Comedy/Drama

   Running Time: 71 minutes

   Release Dates: November 25, 2007
   Website: Click Here
   Trailer: Click Here
   Review Date: November 1, 2007
   Reviewed By: Monika DeLeeuw-Taylor
Final Score:
9.0
How do we critique films? Click Here To See.

“All you would see is me...
Loving everything around me so sweetly
Loving my eternal spirituality
And you would see
You and me
Sharing continuous moments in history..."
                                         -AKL

Aiden (Erik Wolfe) is a former businessman who grew tired of the competitiveness and superficiality of the business world. Now on a permanent hiatus, he is on a quest to find himself and his true calling.

One day, he stumbles upon a notebook full of sketches that has been left beside a river. While flipping through it, the owner of the notebook, Fiona (Jennifer Stackpole), returns to confront him. The two strike up a conversation, and end up spending most of the day together. The chance meeting is made even more special by the fact that the two of them have remarkable chemistry together.

It’s not until that night, however, that Aiden confesses he is leaving the next morning on a cross-country road trip, and while Fiona doesn’t make a fuss about it, she obviously wants him to stay.

Having left corporate America
to find himself...
...Aiden happens upon a independant
artist named Fiona.

Content
One of this film’s greatest strengths is the dialogue. The random conversations between Aiden and Fiona seem real – not scripted. And, whether intentional or not, I noticed a great bit of dialogue that almost seemed to break the fourth wall. After having seen a movie together, the two are walking through a park discussing how horrible it was, and Aiden mentions that because the director shot it for almost no money and put a bunch of his friends in it, it had to be a terrible movie. That made me laugh.

The two characters also complement each other very well. Aiden is somewhat lost and unsure of himself, and meeting the independent and artistic Fiona really seems to bring the spark back into him. A lot about Fiona reminded me of myself, and I’m sure that a lot of people could see aspects of themselves in either character. These two are just two simply normal people whose lives we as the audience have the privilege of eavesdropping on.

The ending – which I’m not going to give away – was perhaps a bit clichéd, but also fit well. Especially since it didn’t seem like something that Aiden’s rather predictable character would do.

The only potential problem in this category would be the film’s length: 71 minutes is a bit awkward, which leaves it somewhere between a short and a feature-length. However, I’ve noticed that these filmmakers have already won several awards and, in watching the movie, it’s hard to imagine any part of it that could stand to be removed. Even though the length is odd, by industry standards, with this film it works fine.

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