The Map That Leads to You review – sugary Amazon romance works best as travelogue | Romance films

A book-loving American girl in her 20s decides to spend time in Europe earlier than she settles into the protection of a finance job in New York Metropolis, however she finally ends up falling for a person who’s harbouring a tragic secret about his future. She’s performed by an in-house Netflix star, he’s performed by a non-American actor identified for his function in a success TV present. The movie is predicated on a novel and is premiering on a streaming platform this month. Whereas this may not be dramatically related sufficient to change into a Dante’s Peak/Volcano state of affairs, it’s exhausting to not watch Amazon’s The Map That Results in You, out this week, and often take into consideration Netflix’s loosely related My Oxford 12 months, launched at the beginning of August.What instantly separates the 2, and sometimes separates Netflix and Amazon motion pictures generally, is the aesthetic. My Oxford 12 months is each bit a TV film whereas The Map That Results in You is as shiny and sweeping as one deserving of a giant display launch. That’s each the Jeff Bezos finances bump but in addition the good thing about having a director like Lasse Hallström on the helm. The Oscar-nominated Swedish film-maker was as soon as Hollywood’s grasp of the middlebrow film, behind Sunday afternoon specials like Chocolat and The Cider Home Guidelines. However it’s his later Nicholas Sparks diversifications Pricey John and Secure Haven that made him the perfect selection right here, easily guiding an adaptation of JP Monninger’s sappy 2017 novel The Map That Results in You (the ebook is even adorned by a Sparks quote).Trusty arms help make the movie really feel grander particularly when the emotion of the story, tailored by Dante’s Peak’s Les Bohem and Don’t Make Me Go’s Vera Herbert, can’t fairly get us there.We meet Heather (Madelyn Cline) and her two pals as they close to the ultimate stretch of their Eurotrip, completely bullet pointed to the ultimate element. Heather is a kind A over-thinker, whose Notes app schedule for her post-graduation and pre-first job within the metropolis hurrah didn’t embrace having a meet-cute with Jack (Riverdale’s KJ Apa), a good-looking New Zealander and fellow Ernest Hemingway fan. He’s every thing she isn’t – impulsive and unplanned – and she or he finds herself altering her plan, and herself, because the pair begin to fall in love.Apa is a likable sufficient actor however he struggles to promote a variety of Jack’s manic pixie dream boy shtick, blandly insisting on the ability of dwelling within the second and saying issues like: “I actually imagine that your ideas assist create your future,” with a straight face. The movie’s reheated messaging concerning the significance of following coronary heart over head is finally a sneaky method to push the feminine lead off her course and on to his, as she relinquishes management to let him paved the way. Their jaunt round Europe, now on his phrases, is a straightforward, seductive watch much less for his or her burgeoning relationship, though they’ve decently sparky chemistry, and extra for the crisply captured surroundings, a lush and transporting late summer season journey for us caught at house, from Spain to Portugal to Italy and so forth. Hallström is aware of precisely methods to make his movies feel and appear delectable and at a time of ongoing streamer tinniness, it’s a pleasure to be led by somebody who actually is aware of the place he’s going.It’s only a disgrace that we’re being led someplace so acquainted. Not simply because My Oxford 12 months just lately took us there too (the “reveal” is nearly an identical) however as a result of so many romantic dramas have taken us there earlier than. Each movies attempt to keep away from the usual cliches that include the territory however neither manages something actually new or, extra importantly, poignant sufficient to deliver the tears that ought to be cascading by the finale. Cline, as she just lately confirmed within the I Know What You Did Final Summer time sequel, is an extremely partaking younger star however one hopes her profession leads her someplace extra unconventional subsequent.