The Map of Tiny Perfect Things

Grade: B-

Young Adult films, much like Hallmark movies, belong to a very niche category in which you aren’t likely to find a Godfather or Citizen Kane or Shawshank Redemption, but it serves a purpose. The plots of Groundhog Day and Palm Springs have been given the YA treatment in The Map of Tiny Perfect Things – a new Amazon original movie. Written by Lev Grossman, based on his short story of the same name, we follow high school senior Mark as he lives the same day over and over again. We see him making his way through town blessing a man before he sneezes, helpfully telling somebody who is looking for something “your keys are in your bag,” and stopping a man on a sidewalk for a couple seconds so bird droppings don’t fall on his bald head. It is confusingly difficult to pinpoint what time of the year this is set. School is in session. Some scenes take place at a pool. Many people are wearing shorts and short sleeved shirts, but there is someone wearing a hoodie at the pool, and in another scene (technically the same day), that same person is wearing a winter coat.

Bill Murray’s character was by himself in Groundhog Day; the only person experiencing this temporal anomaly. In Palm Springs and The Map of Tiny Perfect Things, our male protagonist – one way or another – finds somebody going through this with him. Mark had been going to the pool every “day” trying to prevent a moment where a cute girl gets hit in the head with a beach ball and knocked into the pool. He did successfully stop it from happening, strike up a conversation with her, and walk her home, in what might have been a charming subplot, but gets quickly abandoned. One day, a girl Mark had never seen before shows up and beats him to it by stopping the beach ball before him. That’s how he finds out that this new girl, Margaret, is in the same situation with him.

There seems to be a presumption in YA stories that these characters will come out on the other side with all of life figured out at the age of 14-20. I can understand why movies and books like these can resonate so much with people in this age range. It’s easy to get caught up in the cinematic bells and whistles, and forget that these are still kids with a lot more living to do. The Map of Tiny Perfect Things at least tries to overcome and sidestep some of this. Kyle Allen and especially Kathryn Newton as the two leads are quite memorable and appealing. At their respective ages of 27 and 24, I see so much promise and potential. Newton in particular is a great find, but more often than not, I saw her performance as a series of the best takes of prepared, rehearsed, well-delivered line readings. She will be a force of nature once she learns to stop acting so much, and that is something I look forward to seeing.

Groundhog Day was unique and innovative for its time, and is rightfully still a cult classic. Palm Springs was a fun, hip, funny, poignant jump back into that pool, and I named it one of the best of 2020. The Map of Tiny Perfect Things is decent for a YA retread of an old idea done better before. There are some fine songs on the soundtrack. The score works very hard to jerk as many tears and tug as many heartstrings as possible. I hope young adults who see this enjoy and appreciate it enough to want to seek out the real deal.

Grade: B-