A Map of the World
Cast
Sigourney Weaver .... Alice Goodwin
Julianne Moore .... Theresa Collins
David Strathairn .... Howard Goodwin
Ron Lea .... Dan Collins
Arliss Howard .... Paul Reverdy
Chloë Sevigny .... Carole Mackessy
Louise Fletcher .... Nellie Goodwin
Dara Perlmutter .... Emma Goodwin
Kayla Perlmutter .... Claire Goodwin
Marc Donato .... Robbie Mackessy
Sara Rue .... Debbie
Director: Scott Elliot
Written by: Peter Hedges and Polly Platt
Theatrical Release Date: 3 December 1999 (US)
Plot
Alice Goodwin is a wife and mother who finds that the pressures of her life are starting to become more than she can bear. Alice works part-time as a school nurse while her husband Howard runs the family farm; they both look after their two daughters. Alice, who wasn't raised in farm country, still feels like an outsider, and she embraces a cynical, sarcastic humor as a defense mechanism. Alice's only real friends in town are Dan and Theresa Collins, who live nearby and often babysit Alice's kids; Alice does the same for the Collins children as well. One day, while watching Theresa's two-year-old daughter Lizzie, Alice has to step away for a few minutes, and she returns to discover Lizzie has fallen into a pond near the house; the child falls into a coma and dies several days later. Lizzie's death puts a permanent wedge between Alice and Theresa, and most people in the community believe Alice is to blame for the girl's death. Any support she might have had is driven away when Robbie, a boy who lives nearby, claims Alice molested him. Alice is sent to jail while awaiting trial, and Howard (who can't afford her $100,000 bail) must watch over their daughters and keep house by himself as he tries to keep the farm afloat. As Alice falls into a deep depression behind bars, Howard and Theresa begin edging into a romance.
Synopsis from All Movie Guide