Map of the World

A slice-of-life tale of personal anguish that gives the capable, wonderful Sigourney Weaver her first truly challenging role in ages, Map of the World, based on Jane Hamilton's bestselling novel, focuses on a once-unflappable, now stressed-out rural wife riddled with guilt and self-loathing when a neighbor's daughter drowns in her backyard pond. Weaver offers up an oddly droll but moving depiction of the pressures and joys of ordinary motherhood fallen under a dark cloud that keeps getting darker (she not only neglects her own children, she's also accused of molestation by a child at the school where she's a nurse), but while the characters (including indie faves Julianne Moore and David Strathairn) and pathos are strongly established, first time filmmaker Scott Elliott allows the movie to drag too much as he strives to create a study in subtlety and emotional constitution. Optional. (R. Blackwelder)