Map of the Human Heart

REVIEW
Director Ward has crafted a dense web of dusky, beautiful images in this story of a love affair that spans 30 years and three continents. Arvik, a half-Inuit boy suffering from tuberculosis, is whisked away from the Arctic by a visiting mapmaker who takes him to a Catholic orphanage in Canada. There, Arvik befriends a young girl of mixed Native American and French Canadian heritage. Many years later as adults (played by Lee and Parillaud) they meet in WWII London, where both are engaged in the fight against Germany. The film's expansiveness of time and place unfortunately results in a distancing of the characters, yet Ward succeeds in provoking thought on the people, places and events that shape one's life.