Map of the Human Heart

Ward's ambitious epic love story covers two continents and three decades and, its execution apart, could have sprung from one of those fat romantic chronicles written for the typing pool. But Ward has an extravagant visual imagination so that even the more outlandish scenes, like the hero and heroine finally consummating their passion on a half-deflated barrage balloon, linger in the mind. Where lack of money cramps his vision of WWII bombing raids on Germany, the director achieves a pleasing shorthand with lighting. Map-maker Bergin lands his biplane in Canada's Arctic Circle and befriends an Inuit boy with TB, flying him to a Montreal hospital, where he becomes best friends with a half-caste Indian girl on Moreau's ward. Ten years later, the friendship has blossomed into love. Fate intervenes at an indecent rate, serving up plenty of misunderstandings, but the mise-en-scène is stunning. Go with the floe.