WELCOME TO QUIRKY, N.M.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

GOOD ACTORS strive to make something out of ``Off the Map,'' but their efforts are defeated by storytelling that rarely gets real.

Ironically, it's a coming-of-age tale about a family living as close to nature as they can, in the spectacular countryside outside of Taos, N.M. Of the major characters, only Joan Allen's no-big-deal-about-it earth mother Arlene seems to fully live in her skin, which she likes to expose completely while gardening.

If that seems like a too-constructed character quirk, well, it's nothing compared to what everybody else in the movie is saddled with.

Arlene lives on a funky, plumbing-and-electricity-free homestead with her husband, Charley (Sam Elliott), and their 11-year-old daughter, Bo (Valentina de Angelis). It's 1974 and they're not exactly hippies, but they subsist on farming, hunting, selling small crafts and refurbishing stuff from the junkyard, all to the tune of about $5,000 in annual income.

As narrated in literary floweriness by a grown-up Bo (Amy Brenneman), Charley was in a deep, usually wordless depression at the time. He stopped fixing stuff and hunting with his daughter; just sat around in tears, mostly. Bright, imaginative Bo, who could clearly use some playmates her own age, wants one of those newfangled Mastercards and writes defective product complaint letters to corporations, which ship her compensatory cases of their goods.

The family's best friend, George (``Spider-Man's'' J.K. Simmons), is a dim-bulb type who falls in love with the psychiatrist Arlene sends him to in a vain effort to get anti-depressant medicine for Charley. Somehow, he ends up mayor of a town in Mexico.

Jim True-Frost, of HBO's ``The Wire,'' completes the eccentric, almost human menagerie as William Gibbs, an IRS auditor who comes to investigate that low-income claim, gets stung by bees and - it being the thing to do in the Land of Enchantment - sticks around and becomes a painter.

As if their trumped-up traits weren't enough, most of these characters are big on inexplicable actions (Charley just has to wrestle George at some point, for some reason; a spanking new sailboat is bought and looks, well, kooky in the desert). Some of this is undeniably amusing, and it sure makes for unpredictable viewing. Of course, inconsistent character development always does.

But everybody plays it like they mean it, which helps. That's probably due to director Campbell Scott's background as an actor. That may have informed the film's pleasingly offbeat comic timing as well.

``Off the Map'' was written by Joan Ackermann, based on her play. It probably could have used some input from a writer who understood staged hokiness is magnified on the big screen.

Bob Strauss, [phone]

bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com

OFF THE MAP - Two and one half stars

(PG-13: nudity, language, drug use)

Starring: Joan Allen, Valentina de Angelis, Sam Elliott, Jim True-Frost, J.K. Simmons.

Director: Campbell Scott.

Running time: 1 hr. 51 min.

Playing: Town Center 5, Encino; Playhouse 7, Pasadena; Beverly Center Cineplex, West Hollywood; Monica, Santa Monica; University Town Center 6, Irvine.

In a nutshell: Girl grows up in unconventional Taos, N.M., household, circa 1974. Based on a stage play and plays like it.

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Photo:

Sam Elliott, Valentina de Angelis and Joan Allen portray a family struggling with isolation in Taos, N.M., in 1974.