This article contains spoilers.
Following my family’s unspoken rule, it only took us 50 seconds of the trailer to decide The Map of Tiny Perfect Things would be worth watching – the less of a trailer you watch, the better the film itself turns out to be. And this was certainly the case for The Map of Tiny Perfect Things.
Despite the film’s release on 14th February, Valentine’s Day, the Amazon Original The Map of Tiny Perfect Things is so much more than a romantic comedy.
Right from the start of the film, there’s a feel-good and light-hearted tone as we see one of the two main characters, Mark (Kyle Allen), walking through his quiet, suburban hometown – hopping lifts on pickups, avoiding and preventing incidents and helping people out.
It becomes apparent that he’s stuck in a time loop; everything is orchestrated to perfection, with Mark aware of it all. This may seem a little ironic since we’re currently living through a global pandemic, with a dull sense of monotony, boredom and restlessness setting in and making every day feel the same.
For Mark, his time loop day changes drastically when he comes across Margaret (Kathryn Newton), who seemingly appears out of the blue – making Mark realise that she must also be stuck in the time loop, as he’s never seen her in that particular spot before. The film then presents us with a boy-meets-girl scenario as well as a whole new world of complications.
“Most of life is just junk, right? It’s filler. And then, there’s these moments, when all the randomness turns into something perfect.” -Mark
The two main characters start spotting and finding tiny moments of utter perfection in their small town, that appear to be scattered amongst the randomness of life. They decide to find all the ones they possibly can – preventing minor accidents and helping passers-by whilst collecting all these tiny and perfect moments.
“All the perfect things, in this one town, in this one day. We could collect them.” -Mark
“Like Pokémon?” -Margaret
“Kinda like Pokémon.” -Mark
Screenplay writer Lev Grossman, upon whose short story of the same name this film is based off, uses pop culture references throughout the movie, making it relatable to many young adults and adding to the feel-good sense of the film. Linking to the film’s references to the 1993 film Groundhog Day with Bill Murray, director Ian Samuels has aimed to make a teenage version of this film, and has accurately done so, adding his own twists along the way. Whilst it’s true that the guy must eventually get with the girl to escape the time loop, their escape is dependent on so much more than that.
It becomes clear that Mark and Margaret cannot escape the time loop until they have collected all the perfect moments, and yet there has to be the desire from both of them to escape. It’s easy to see how reliving the same day over and over again could have its advantages; never growing old, forever being stuck at 17-years-old, never getting ill, never having to go to university or get a job – the list is endless.
By this point of the film, Mark has already tried to escape by catching a flight to Tokyo, though he was immediately transported to his bedroom in the morning when the plane crossed the International Date Line. Mark has reached the point at which being caught in a time loop has become meaningless, and he finds himself wanting to move forwards with his future.
“Time is the stuff that when you spend it, you don’t get it back.” -Mark
Margaret’s reason for wanting to remain in the time loop, despite her ambitions to become a NASA Mission Specialist, is the fact that her mother, Greta (Jorja Fox), is terminally ill with cancer – and this is the day she dies, hence why Margaret disappears every night to say goodbye to her mum over and over again.
With the revelation of part of Margaret’s backstory, the film takes on a new meaning; symbolising family and loss as well as love and the transient nature of time. When Margaret figures out how she and Mark can escape the time loop, she visits her dying mother one last time – allowing Greta to leave her daughter with important (and tear-jerking) messages about living in the moment and the joys that the future can bring to us.
“It’s true that we’re losing time every day, all the time, until one day it’s all gone. But you’re gaining it too. Every second. Perfect moments, one after the other, until, by the end, you have your whole life.” -Greta
The Map of Tiny Perfect Things concludes with Mark and Margaret finally breaking out and escaping the time loop, having learnt valuable lessons about love, family and making every day count.
It is fair to say The Map of Tiny Perfect Things surpassed my expectations, as it is so much more than a romcom, containing underlying yet important and powerful messages about the future that make this film a must-watch. I would really recommend this film to anyone looking for something new to watch. Personally, The Map of Tiny Perfect Things is most definitely the best young adult movie I’ve seen for a long while.
Hannah Cochrane
Featured image courtesy of 11417994 via Pixabay. Image licence found here. No changes were made to this image.