The Map That Leads To You's romance only works if you don't know any better

As disconnected from reality and as deep as a high school fling, this romance is an insufferable backpacking trip.

By Caroline Siede | August 19, 2025 | 12:00pm

Photo: Amazon MGM Studios

Film Reviews KJ Apa

The Map That Leads To You's romance only works if you don't know any better

Can a hot bohemian also be a Type-A banker? This is the question posed by the disconnect between the script and the reality of The Map That Leads To You, the latest streaming film to spring from a popular romance novel. In this case, the streamer is Prime Video, the source material is J.P. Monninger’s 2017 book, and the confusing character at its heart is leading lady Heather Mulgrew (Outer Banks star Madelyn Cline), who dresses and acts like a perfectly tousled, laidback Gen Zer but is apparently the film’s idea of a plan-obsessed control freak.

On the one hand, it’s kind of commendable that The Map That Leads To You doesn’t simply fall back on age-old shorthand for high-strung women. (There’s not a tight ponytail in sight.) On the other, specificity is the key to good writing, and when your leading lady is blandly pleasant and generically cool, it’s hard to build a compelling story around her. To call Heather “cookie cutter” would be putting it generously. But perhaps that’s fitting for a movie whose message about living in the moment and seizing the day feels like it could have come from a fortune cookie.

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At least there’s some specificity in the set-up. As we first meet Heather, she’s on a post-college, pre-career trip through Europe with her best friends Connie (Sofia Wylie) and Amy (Madison Thompson). They’ve checked off Amsterdam, Brussels, and Paris, and are on a train bound for Barcelona. That’s where Heather meets Jack (Riverdale‘s KJ Apa), a ruggedly handsome backpacker who crawls up onto the luggage rack to stretch out and then starts chatting with her about Ernest Hemingway.

While any sane woman would go running for the hills, Heather is still young enough to find Jack’s schtick at least somewhat charming. Once he tracks her down at a warehouse club, they strike up a whirlwind romance strong enough to get her to skip her flight home so that she and Jack can wander Spain for two weeks while he regales her with deep musings like, “I really believe that your thoughts help create your future” and “Does anyone really know where they’re going?” Unlike Heather, Jack hates the idea of having a plan. So, like any good free-spirit, he’s following his great-grandfather’s WWII-era travel journey through Europe while ranting about people who take selfies instead of living in the moment.

It’s as overt a Manic Pixie Dream Love Interest as the genre has gotten in years, and the fact that it’s genderflipped from the traditional model only makes it slightly more interesting. While Apa has a certain fundamental charisma—especially when he’s able to use his actual New Zealand accent rather than the American one he was stuck with on Riverdale—Jack is such an over-the-top take on an old-soul beatnik that it’s hard to take the character seriously. It doesn’t help that he’s got a traumatic backstory that pushes the movie more towards romantic weepy than romantic comedy, something that only ups the absurdism.

For The Map That Leads To You to work, it needs to be filled with the sexy, sensual blush of first love, steeped in the naïveté of two young people who don’t yet realize just how cliché their dynamic is. Unfortunately, it’s directed by Lasse Hallström, who specializes in bringing dreamy maturity to projects like Chocolat, Salmon Fishing In The Yemen, and of course A Dog’s Purpose. While The Map That Leads To You looks great—much of it clearly shot on location in Spain during golden hour—it’s too staid and calm to reflect the throw-caution-to-the-wind passion of its two young protagonists. Rather than getting swept up in Heather and Jack’s courtship, the film keeps them at a distance, like a slow-motion car crash you can’t look away from.

The best and most realistic dynamic in the movie is actually the one between Heather and her two gal pals, who offer a lovely, lived-in take on youthful female friendship—deeply caring but also respectful of each other’s individuality. While Heather takes off with her new beau, Connie and Amy head off for their own transformative European adventures, occasionally FaceTiming in to gossip about how they’re doing. There’s a naturalistic warmth and believable banter among the trio, and The Map That Leads To You might have been better served as a Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants-style ensemble movie that contrasted their three journeys rather than getting bogged down in just one. Unfortunately, we have to watch Jack run with the bulls and mansplain God instead.

Much like an ill-advised love affair with a self-involved backpacker, The Map That Leads To You may enchant some young viewers who aren’t yet experienced enough to know there’s better out there. Its tropes are compelling enough, even if they’re not particularly well-realized here. But for adults who’ve been around the genre before, there are better maps to follow.

Director: Lasse Hallström
Writer: Les Bohem, Vera Herbert
Starring: Madelyn Cline, KJ Apa, Sofia Wylie, Madison Thompson, Josh Lucas
Release Date: August 20, 2025 (Prime Video)