My top three favorite movies, from third to first, are: The World’s End (2013), Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010), and Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back (1980).  Because I am such a dedicated Star Wars fan, I do not think anything will ever eclipse The Empire Strikes Back.  As for the other two, had you asked me before 2010 what was number two in those rankings, I would have said something else.  It has been over a decade since I have updated that list, though I have seen some quality cinema in the intervening years.  Today’s film, The Map of Tiny Perfect Things (2021), will have to replace the runner up position, moving Scott Pilgrim vs. the World to third and The World’s End out of medaling.  The Map of Tiny Perfect Things works for me on many levels, especially a Catholic one, even if Christianity is not part of the story.  As such, it is a blessing to talk about it with you.

It is a blessing to wake up every morning, and that is what we see Mark (Kyle Allen) do at the beginning of The Map of Tiny Perfect Things.  He gets out of bed in time to see his mother drive off to work.  From there he greets his dad, Daniel (Josh Hamilton), and sister, Emma (Cleo Fraser), at breakfast.  Immediately, it is apparent that there is some kind of routine that he is subconsciously familiar with that has him picking the toast up just as it finishes and kicking a coffee mug without looking into the air that is pushed off the table.  The behavior continues as he heads out into town.  He is supposed to be going to summer school, but instead prevents accidents before they happen and hands objects to people at the moment they need them.  After a little while, he lands on his best friend’s, Henry (Jermaine Harris), couch.  Mark explains to Henry that he is stuck in a time loop, reliving the same day repeatedly.  Before you start thinking of other movies this sounds like, such as Groundhog Day (1993) or Edge of Tomorrow (2014), Mark in The Map of Tiny Perfect Things is aware of these titles and the similarities to them in what he is describing.  In discussing this further with Henry, Mark’s friend muses that if he had this happening to him, he would use it to find girls.  We have already seen this included in Mark’s activities.  As part of the schedule he has memorized in terms of the town’s events that day is an encounter with Phoebe (Anna Mikami), a young lady with whom he tries to converse.  Due to his latent nerdiness, his several attempts are unsuccessful.  Otherwise, he spends the majority of his time wandering the streets and indulging in observing the various comings and goings.  During one of these outings as he is still in the process of figuring out how to approach Phoebe, another girl walks through his day whom he had never seen.  Since he had committed to memory almost everything else going on, such a disruption is significant.  He spends the next few days looking for her until finally he spots her outside of a diner.  His introduction begins with wondering whether she is experiencing a time anomaly.  Her name is Margaret (Kathryn Newton), and she has the same problem as Mark.  At first, though she shows some interest in the only other person with whom she has something in common, she is standoffish.  Her attitude towards what is going on is also more nihilistic than his, thinking only of the mathematical oddity of it all.  For him, he is philosophical about the situation, wanting to use it in order to help people.  It is his view that eventually wins her over, and they begin a quest to go around the city and witness the little, precious moments that people enjoy but are gone and all but forgotten as quickly as they happen.  However, every day around the same time, she announces that she has to go.  He believes it is a boyfriend she goes to see, and somebody in her phone named Jared (Forrest Funk) appears to be the guy.  It only makes Mark try all the harder to win her over.  They are on the verge of kissing one day when she stops him, saying that all she has to offer is friendship.  While that is not the most welcome of news, he accepts it for the time being.  Margaret is sensitive to his feelings and takes him to a model home to break things and let off steam.  It is there that he voices an idea he has come up with for ending the cycle involving flying across the International Date Line.  With some hesitation, she agrees, but before their plane takes off, she sneaks off while he is not looking.  The plan also does not work, and he awakens in his bed at the same moment as he had done for countless days already.  What he does next shows a true Catholic character.  Instead of turning inward, he focuses on other people, like his family, friends, and others he has observed.  One of these excursions involves skateboarding, though it results in him breaking his wrist.  While at the hospital, he notices Margaret.  Following her, he sees her go into the room where a sick woman is dying, her mother.  Jared is the doctor, by the way.  It is at this point that Mark realizes the story had never been about him.  It is Margaret’s tale, and she had been avoiding moving on because she does not want to lose her mother.  Two things change for Margaret: first, she sees the pattern in everything happening that Mark had been trying to find; secondly, her mother reminds her that death is inevitable, but living a good life makes it worth it.  With that, and having inspiration from playing video games with Henry, Margaret concludes that it is Mark that is the only thing missing.  She finds him at the pool, they kiss, and that night, after saying goodbye to her mom, time proceeds to the next day.

What we see Margaret and Mark doing on that next day in The Map of Tiny Perfect Things is returning a lost dog to its owners.  By the way, the pet’s name is Chewbarka.  It is one of the many title moments that made this Catholic’s heart sing.  There are so many directions I can go with this analysis, but the most logical place to start is the title.  It perfectly relates what we see them observing throughout the film.  From a Catholic perspective, this is something God calls us to on a daily basis.  People want God to perform the kind of big miracles we read about in the Old Testament.  Yet, anything we see happen, like in the movie when a delivery van with wings on the side silhouettes a man sitting down, making it look like he is an angel, or a bird of prey snagging a fish from a pond, all can be looked at as miraculous.  You may not want to agree, and the argument can be made that in the grand scheme of things they are mundane rather than divine.  However, if they turn one’s thoughts to God, then who are we to say otherwise?  Then again, Margaret and Mark are not thinking about God, but that is Hollywood for you.  At the same time, they talk a lot about a “fourth dimension.”  For the mathematically inclined Margaret, it is something she has been searching for ever since she entered the loop.  She denies it is time, she does not talk about it as God, but her definition is beautiful.  She says, “It’s around us all the time, we’re just not looking in the right direction.”  That is God, that is Faith, or rather the practice thereof.  We look for the Divine in all the wrong people and places.  Instead, He is there in the tiniest moments.  We only have to learn how to recognize them.

It is in learning how to recognize those God moments, even if they are not referred to as such, that The Map of Tiny Perfect Things shines.  It is engaging, funny, moving, smart, sweet, and so much more.  It should also be appreciated for what it is not: vulgar in any sense of the word.  For this reviewer, it is a must see.