Burn Your Maps is a wonderful film about a couple in various stages of grief over the recent loss of two family members, and.shows - to some degree - the fall out when grief is stifled or not processed.
For example - the father attempted to cope by throwing himself back into work, as a way to be in 'control' of life. The mother simply was numbed with a sort of partially functioning depression, spiraling. We see them trying to use a therapist to fix the ensuing issues created by each of their very different grieving processes, and we are clued into knowing it often involves some arguing in front of their kids. Meanwhile, there's a teen daughter and a young son, about 8 to 10 years old.
The teen acts like a normal teen. If she is grieving or still disturbed by the deaths, she doesn't show it. We are not shown much about her, other than very typical teen behaviour - which may have been intended. Some teens do indeed just move on from death very quickly, or more likey tune everything out.
The main story of the film is the little boy, who imagines himself Mongolian, and immerses himself in the culture.
We only realize he has actually created a grieving mechanism later in the film. For a while, the viewer might simply interpret him as just an extremely creative, imaginative kid.
A brief combination of events leads to a new aquaintence in a young man, a student and sort of nerdy loner, he is interested in making movies. He films the boy talking about Mongolia, and moved by the child's story, he creates a sort of 'go fund me' page for him.
During this, we see scenes showing the mom coming out of depression, feeling somewhat hopeful, and the dad losing control. The trading of their grief reactions was very interesting to watch.
After seeing the short video of her son, the mom unilaterally packs and takes her son to Mongolia and the young man goes too, to film the trip, while the dad away is taking the teen daughter to a computer camp.
We then follow the amazing travels in Mongolia as the student captures the events along the way.. We watch the trip unfold for the little boy in scenes of the beautiful vistas and thru interesting people they meet along the way. And we see the mom no longer depressed, and the young loner aspiring filmmaker meets a Mongolian girl - an added interesting part of the movie.
During the trip the young filmmaker also posts his videos and the father & daughter see them. We watch as the father realizes what he's missing.
Finally, around the last 15 minutes of the film, the family reunites thru these dynamics of the trip & posted videos, which is the most beautiful part of the movie, as very simple things are finally said simply out loud that are healing, and help them move forward.
No more spoilers!
The last scene is also one of the best!
This is a very sweet, touching movie while feeling pretty real at the same time. The dialogue is true. And the cast is excellent.
It is not cliche, shallow, or sappy. Low review comments indicate little understanding of different kinds of grief reactions & processes.
The film is actually about processing grief.
Definitely a keeper to rewatch!
We need more movies like this.
For example - the father attempted to cope by throwing himself back into work, as a way to be in 'control' of life. The mother simply was numbed with a sort of partially functioning depression, spiraling. We see them trying to use a therapist to fix the ensuing issues created by each of their very different grieving processes, and we are clued into knowing it often involves some arguing in front of their kids. Meanwhile, there's a teen daughter and a young son, about 8 to 10 years old.
The teen acts like a normal teen. If she is grieving or still disturbed by the deaths, she doesn't show it. We are not shown much about her, other than very typical teen behaviour - which may have been intended. Some teens do indeed just move on from death very quickly, or more likey tune everything out.
The main story of the film is the little boy, who imagines himself Mongolian, and immerses himself in the culture.
We only realize he has actually created a grieving mechanism later in the film. For a while, the viewer might simply interpret him as just an extremely creative, imaginative kid.
A brief combination of events leads to a new aquaintence in a young man, a student and sort of nerdy loner, he is interested in making movies. He films the boy talking about Mongolia, and moved by the child's story, he creates a sort of 'go fund me' page for him.
During this, we see scenes showing the mom coming out of depression, feeling somewhat hopeful, and the dad losing control. The trading of their grief reactions was very interesting to watch.
After seeing the short video of her son, the mom unilaterally packs and takes her son to Mongolia and the young man goes too, to film the trip, while the dad away is taking the teen daughter to a computer camp.
We then follow the amazing travels in Mongolia as the student captures the events along the way.. We watch the trip unfold for the little boy in scenes of the beautiful vistas and thru interesting people they meet along the way. And we see the mom no longer depressed, and the young loner aspiring filmmaker meets a Mongolian girl - an added interesting part of the movie.
During the trip the young filmmaker also posts his videos and the father & daughter see them. We watch as the father realizes what he's missing.
Finally, around the last 15 minutes of the film, the family reunites thru these dynamics of the trip & posted videos, which is the most beautiful part of the movie, as very simple things are finally said simply out loud that are healing, and help them move forward.
No more spoilers!
The last scene is also one of the best!
This is a very sweet, touching movie while feeling pretty real at the same time. The dialogue is true. And the cast is excellent.
It is not cliche, shallow, or sappy. Low review comments indicate little understanding of different kinds of grief reactions & processes.
The film is actually about processing grief.
Definitely a keeper to rewatch!
We need more movies like this.