The Map of Tiny Perfect Things Review: Fun Teen Romance on Repeat!

The Map of Tiny Perfect Things on Amazon Prime Video explores the story of two teenagers stuck in the same day loop, look for a way to get out of the time loop. Let’s begin with the positives. This movie is so light that it will just actually make you laugh, smile, and feel some sadness throughout. The laughing and smiling aspects are delivered well by Kathryn Newton, who seems to be in a lot lately and relatively new Kyle Allen.

Also Read: Judas and the Black Messiah Review

Allen shines in the first three-quarters of The Map of Tiny Perfect Things, where his character Mark learns to be less selfish as he goes through the same day over and over. I found him to be very likable in a silly way, and he had some really funny scenes as he interacted with the environment around him. Newton then carries the ending of the movie to drive home some emotion that works.

There are scenes where the two are trying to fix the day over and over as they do small physical tasks with people around them but continue to have discussions with each other, which I thought was well done. The two did have some good chemistry with one another. The scene that I felt showed the best chemistry and was one of the best of the movie was with Mark changing a school gym into a fake moon landing, which gave you the chemistry and heart between the two.

The soundtrack is soft but is fitting for the teenage rom-com style of movie. In terms of time loop style movies, I found they had some strong aspects with Mark having to memorize phone numbers and draw out things every day to memorize as they are erased each morning.

The biggest issue that I had was the timing of this movie with the release of Palm Springs less than six months ago. Palm Springs was one of my favorite movies of the year in 2020 and this was almost like the Deep Impact to the Armageddon in terms of getting attention.

Although there are different tones and this took much more of the teenage rom-com style of the movie the similarities are there and didn’t stack up as great as Palm Springs did for me. I found that the map that the two were putting together is something that just easily comes together which didn’t make a lot of sense to me but just worked out in the end.

There are some slower moments in the middle of the movie as there is almost too much science discussion which doesn’t match the tone of the movie. I also found that the lighting of daytime vs night time didn’t seem as consistent throughout with some scenes looking like it was dark when it should have been light out and vice versa.

Also Read: Our Friend Review: A Heart Breaking Story!

So how to rate The Map of Tiny Perfect Things? I still really enjoyed it and found it light enough to not take it too seriously. The leads were strong, and I am a sucker for time loop movies like I have said in the past. It almost had the feeling of a very well-made Netflix rom-com but somehow was done much better. If you were to ask me, I’d tell you to watch Palm Springs first, but there isn’t anything majorly wrong with this movie.

The only problem is there is nothing new that this story introduced in this spectrum of movies. Still worth a watch and a pretty good addition to the Amazon Prime library. I do think the movie could have created a much better title than The Map of Tiny Perfect Things. Watch the movie on Prime Video here.

Rating – 3.5/5 | Grade – B+

Review by Bobby Mack
Follow Mack on IG @mmreview