Map of the Human Heart

1992

Map of the Human Heart

Critics Consensus

No consensus yet.

81%

TOMATOMETER

Total Count: 21

80%

Audience Score

User Ratings: 2,278

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Movie Info

Vincent Ward directed this beautifully photographed romantic tale about a bold love affair stretching across both years and cultural barriers. The film begins in the Arctic in 1965 as a young mapmaker (John Cusack) arrives in an Eskimo village and meets a drunken old half-caste Eskimo named Avik, who regales the mapmaker with his life story. Avik recalls the arrival in 1921 of another cartographer in their village, the swaggering British mapmaker Walter Russell (Patrick Bergin). Walter discovers Avik (played as a young man by Robert Joanie) is suffering from tuberculosis and rushes him to a sanitarium in Montreal. Avik, who has never been outside his village, is awestruck at the outside world. He is also awestruck by a half-Indian girl named Albertine (Annie Galipeau), and they become friends. But one of the Catholic sisters (Jeanne Moreau) who runs the sanitarium pulls Albertine away from Avik. Ten years later, Walter returns to the Eskimo village. Avik (now grown up as Jason Scott Lee) tells him the village is starving and that they blame him, since he was tainted by the white man in his visit to Montreal. Walter offers to take Avik with him, but Avik must stay to tend his dying grandmother. But he does ask Walter to look up Albertine and tell her he loves her. Walter abides by his request and finds Albertine (now played by Anne Parillaud). By now, Avikhas been abandoned by his village and has joined the air force. He encounters Albertine and the two renew their old love. But there is a complication: Albertine is now having an affair with Walter.

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Cast

Jason Scott Lee
as Avik
Anne Parillaud
as Albertine
Robert Joamie
as Young Avik
Annie Galipeau
as Young Albertine
Patrick Bergin
as Russell
John Cusack
as Clark
Jeanne Moreau
as Sister Banville
Clotilde Courau
as Rainee
Ben Mendelsohn
as Farmboy
Jerry Snell
as Boleslaw
Matt Holland
as Navigator
Kliment Denchev
as Doctor on Boat
Jayko Pitseolak
as Avik's Grandmother
Frank Verellen
as Chopper Pilot
Jeff Mahoney
as Chopper NCO
Rebecca Vevee
as Inuit Woman--Cook
Josape Kopalee
as Inuit Elder
Mark Ruel
as Photo Analyst
Charlotte Coleman
as Julie
Reepah Arreak
as Anna
Monique Spaziani
as Kind Nurse
Jod Leveille Bernard
as Newspaper Boy
Minor Mustain
as Army Sergeant
Edouard Kurtness
as Indian Patient
Harry Hill
as Doctor
Anick Matern
as Thelma
Marc Ruel
as Michael
Tyley Ross
as Messenger
Griffith Brewer
as Homeguard
Robert Higden
as Photographer
Robin Dorken
as Oilman in Bar
Bill Rowat
as Barman
Benoit Bissonnette
as Stephen
Richard Zeman
as MP
Haden Devine
as American Soldier
Gordon Masten
as Colonel Jameson
Michelle Turmel
as Ginger Jameson
Sean Hayes
as Hotel Bellboy
Rick Manburg
as Walter's NCO
Dennis St John
as Moravian Minister
Kliment Dentchev
as Doctor on Boat
Tamar Koslov
as Margarete
Bronwen Mantel
as Woman Guest
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Critic Reviews for Map of the Human Heart

All Critics (21) | Top Critics (4)

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Audience Reviews for Map of the Human Heart

  • Apr 23, 2012
    Nice. Moving. Touching...even though the style of this movie definitely shows its age. Much has happened in the last 20 yrs to improve productions. To see this movie made again, with todays expertise, would be really fantastic. FYI: John Cusack is in this for less than 5 min...
    Cynthia S Super Reviewer
  • Sep 11, 2010
    The movie starts off very well with interesting relationships between Inuit, European and other Meso-American peoples and then switches gears into a sweeping romance. Jason Scott Lee really steps up to and fills his role as an Inuit who is drawn into a world he is unfamiliar with. By the time the film gets to WWII it might as well be Pearl Harbor w/ burning models instead of god CGI. As a note Cusack has a 5 Minute role sitting at a table looking at a map listening to Lee retell his story
    Bill C Super Reviewer
  • Jan 29, 2007
    Average film narrative about an Inuit Eskimo's life and his relationship with a half-breed Indian girl that looks like its epic story.
    Dean M Super Reviewer
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