Movie Review: The Map of Tiny Perfect Things

I love movies that touch my heart and bring tears to my eyes with touching scenes.

The Map of Tiny Perfect Things delivers on both accounts.It's no accident it was released on Valentines day, since it's a sweet, touching romance story with an almost unique twist, and it expands on what may be the start of a new genre.

It's a take-off on the classic movie, Groundhogs Day, which starred Bill Murray. But this movie has two people, a teenaged boy and girl both stuck in the same time loop. Like Groundhogs Day, this movie offers entertaining, touching funny scenes that happen when the protagonist knows what's going to happen and anticipates it.

But the film also offers some wisdom-- that our lives are made of special moments, and that we can even map them. It shows that perfect moments don't have to be winning a lotto prize. They can be moments of noticing serendipitous timing or amazing events in nature. Here's how it's said in the film:

"Most of life is just junk, and then there are these random moments, Where all the randomness turns into something perfect. "

Then he asks, "What if we found them all? We could collect them..."

The main characters in the film, played by Kathryn Newton, and Kyle Allen, do a great, subtle job that makes me want to see more of them.

The film is playing on Amazon Prime. There's no violence, no sex, but if you like a good romance, or a touching story that may make moisture well up in your eyes, this could be the film for you. It certainly put a smile on my face, a glow in my heart and moisture in at least one eye (I once theorized that tears inspired by touching scenes or stories could be something that only happens in one eye,) this is for you. NYTimes reviewer Ben Kenigsberg characterized it as trite and "a perfectly fine pretext for teenage treacle." But I'm a sucker for treacle and I would disagree on it being trite. I'd say that the idea of creating a Groundhog's day genre is cool and that it offers writers challenges to come up with unique new angles. Screenwriters Danny Rubin and Harold Ramis did more than create a classic movie. They created a new genre. Imagine if reviewers called new romcoms trite. Nope. This makes me want to see more GroundHog's day genre films-- sci fi, combat, detective. The sky's the limit.