Off the Map (2005)

A New Mexico couple is living by their own simple-life rules. They have squirrels for dinner, troll the dump for the "good stuff," trade for services, and generate a small income for whatever else they need by selling stuff like cut flowers.

They're getting audited and, due to a bad reaction to a bee sting, the IRS guy ends up tossing in fever on their couch for several days. Once he recovers, he finds he's no longer interested in bringing order to this odd family's finances, but rather that being in their presence has freed him from the order of his life.

This is a strong cast (Joan Allen, Sam Elliott, JK Simmons), the mood is right for the scenery (surreal and leisurely) -- and I was interested in this group with its depressed father and devoted best friend, but there's a big problem: the narration. The grown daughter tells the story of a few months in her girlhood, but she's the wrong one to tell it. Out of everyone involved, she's the WRONGEST. I'd rather hear the perspective of any of the other four major characters. I didn't like the daughter and I didn't care about what she had to say.

C+