The Mapmaker (2001)

I've always been fascinated by the practical art of cartography, but after trying to watch the film The Mapmaker, my interest waned in the subject. The plot is about as exciting as watching paint dry. Some guy ends up in some little Irish town with a 3 month assignment of mapping out the area to expand tourism. You see, not every sheep path was on the previous maps, and the town can’t live without this knowledge. What qualifies him, I still don't know as his previous assignment was to document the water sewers of some Dublin water district. Anyway, I think they've never heard of Google Maps, or even satellite imagery, as this dude walks around the area with some GPS gear and a video camera that somehow coordinates the video to the location. While going about, he stumbles on some town secret.

I truthfully couldn't even watch the entire film. My efforts to understand what was going on were hampered by some serious Gaelic accent (the most I've heard since hangin' around the "Tree House" way back), and an "el cheapo" DVD that didn't have any subtitles to clue me in. While maps are made to guide travelers, the The Mapmaker simply lost me halfway through. If you're dying to see views of green grass and the Irish countryside, there are plenty of better ways then this film.

--Jonas

Grade: Incomplete