The Map of Tiny Perfect Things is a sci-fi romantic-comedy drama film directed by Ian Samuels, based on the screenplay by Lev Grossman. It is based on Grossman’s short story of the same name and stars Kathryn Newton, Kyle Allen, Jermaine Harris, Anna Mikami, Josh Hamilton, Cleo Fraser, and Jorja Fox.
If there’s anything that I’ve liked about time-loop movies, it’s that there’s something interesting to look forward to most of the time. That’s the same for The Map of Tiny Perfect Things, a young adult movie about two teenagers reliving the same day over and over again. It isn’t just a science-fiction movie, however. This is more about emotions, romance and a little bit of drama – the mixture of which leaves a sweet taste in your mouth and many tears in your eyes.
The Map of Tiny Perfect Things follows Mark and Margaret, two teenagers stuck in a time loop, reliving the same day over and over again. Will they be able to get out of the loop anytime soon?
The movie has a lot of heart and emotion tucked under the sci-fi genre. There’s a lot of feelings that these two feels throughout their journey, which is acceptable considering they’re essentially never going to live a day which isn’t “old”. The movie isn’t essentially anything new – you will get whispers of other time-loop movies here. However, there’s something genuinely sweet about Mark and Margaret that truly hold on to your heartstrings.
Mark has the odd idea that to break the cycle, they have to find perfect moments around them. Defining a perfect moment seems to be quite difficult and the task itself pointless considering there is no science behind it. But hey, these are teenagers, and I don’t have a lot of faith regarding their critical thinking abilities.
However, the backbone of The Map of Tiny Perfect Things is Margaret. She’s the rational one of the two and is a delight to watch. Fortunately for us, she isn’t the manic pixie girl that we have all come to know (and hate) and more often than not she drives the story forward. Margaret also gets the best lines in the movie and delivers them with the perfect amount of disdain and amusement for it to be absolutely great.
The movie works because of the lovely pairing of Kathryn Newton and Kyle Allen whose chemistry is great and they work off each other splendidly. The couple fills up each other’s gaps in the narrative and provides a movie that touches your heart. Margaret, more so, gets the longer end of the stick and has some genuinely heartfelt moments that give her character meaning and a tender backstory. You might as well shed a few tears with her at the end of the movie.
Director Ian Samuels, who was previously known for Sierra Burgess Is a Loser (and that was something), does something nice here. It’s not absolutely tone-deaf and problematic as his previous feature and he does some fun things with the camera that are great to watch. Cinematography is great as well, and the movie is absolutely gorgeous.
Summing up: The Map of Tiny Perfect Things
The Map of Tiny Perfect Things is a sweet romantic sci-fi movie that will keep you engaged and interested throughout its runtime. The story is simple, and its more about how these two individuals live and their feelings rather than the sci-fi aspect of it. Regardless, it’s still a good watch and has many heartfelt moments that pull on your heartstrings.
The Map of Tiny Perfect Things is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
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