logo
Madelyn Cline and KJ Apa fall for each other in romantic film 'The Map That Leads to You'

Madelyn Cline and KJ Apa fall for each other in romantic film 'The Map That Leads to You'

Express Tribune15-07-2025
Madelyn Cline and KJ Apa are ready to set hearts racing in The Map That Leads to You, a sweeping romantic drama arriving on Prime Video this August. Based on the bestselling novel by J.P. Monninger, the film tells the story of Heather and Jack, two strangers who fall in love while navigating the cobblestone streets, historic landmarks, and emotional crossroads of Europe.
Cline plays Heather, a meticulous and goal-driven recent graduate traveling with friends before starting her adult life. Her well-organised itinerary takes an unexpected turn when she meets Jack (played by Riverdale star KJ Apa), a spontaneous backpacker tracing the travel memories recorded in his late grandfather's journal. The contrast in their personalities forms the crux of the story: Heather thrives on structure, while Jack urges her to embrace spontaneity.
As the two check off destinations together, sparks fly amid sun-drenched lavender fields, seaside escapes, and even a wild run with the bulls. But just as their bond deepens, reality intrudes. Secrets are revealed, life choices loom, and their whirlwind romance is forced to confront its expiry date.
'Tell me about the boy who followed us from the train station?' Heather's friend teases in the trailer, hinting at a chemistry that quickly becomes more than fleeting. The emotional tension builds as Heather later asks Jack, 'The thought of being a continent away from you is unbearable? Or is that just me?'
Directed by Dear John filmmaker Lasse Hallström and written by Vera Herbert and Les Bohem, the film also stars Sofia Wylie, Orlando Norman, and Josh Lucas. The Map That Leads to You premieres August 20 on Prime Video, just in time to offer audiences one last taste of summer love.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Do not fall for the lies spouted by ‘We Were Liars'
Do not fall for the lies spouted by ‘We Were Liars'

Express Tribune

time2 days ago

  • Express Tribune

Do not fall for the lies spouted by ‘We Were Liars'

It is a rare achievement for a book and its corresponding television show to be as spectacularly terrible as each other in a stunning array of ways, but We Were Liars is the unique work of art that pulls it off. Nobody else will tell you this, by the way. In a bid to eat into hours of your time that you will never get back, E Lockhart's We Were Liars attempts to sell us the story of Cadence Sinclair, her picture-perfect cousins, their tiny private island, their idyllic sun-drenched, sea-soaked summer holidays. There is also a terrible tragedy that Cadence alludes to but does not deign to give us any details about. A huge part of the reason for Cadence's reticence is that she has no memory of any of these terrible things, and no one with a fully fucntioning memory in her life sees fit to supply answers. Additionally, despite the promising title, nobody actually does any lying here. Everyone is just irritatingly obtuse. Cadence is left to play detective, causing you to come close to throwing either your remote or the book by the time she has arrives at her tortuous conclusion. We really need to find a way to cure literary amnesia to spare future readers the pain of a rambling, incoherent protagonist who probably could have been shoved off a cliff at the earliest opportunity. Unfortunately, not everyone subscribes to these unkind thoughts about fictional amnesiacs like Cadence. Enraptured BookTokkers who were late in picking up this 2014 bestseller, along with giddy IMDb reviewers who fell in love with the Prime Video show of the same name which arrived in June, will conspire to trap you into the well of horror that is both the book and the limited series. Do not be the deluded fool who falls for their solemn promises of excellence, unless you enjoy the incomplete, imaginatively punctuated sentences spilling forth from an unreliable teenaged narrator who unfurls a twist that makes you heartily wish she had perished on page 1 - of both the book and the script. Consider this warning a public service. A rambling mess If you are not already overflowing with gratitude for this simple public service, you should be, because you have now been spared two days of skimming through tedious descriptions of our heroine's trauma-induced headaches. And do not feel you will be left out of this headache party if you only plan on watching the show! You show watchers will also get to experience your fair share of We Were Liar-induced headaches after suffering through intense close-ups of blinding blonde hair and shiny white teeth. Before you are all up in arms, we must make it clear, we are not discriminating against dental hygiene and bright hair hair; what we are saying is, one should not have to reach for sunglasses upon finding oneself in extreme close quarters with teeth that dazzle like the sun and dominate the screen, certainly not one we are are squinting at these teeth on TV instead of our phones. Anyway, just what manner of trauma has caused Cadence to be plagued with her aches and pains is not made immediately clear; what is certainly clear is that gets them, and keeps us all in the loop with no thought to spare for commas or, indeed, punctuation of any description - at least not in the traditional sense. Devoid of scaffolding and structure, Cadence's sentences melt into one another with not quite the finesse of sugar pooling into caramel on a hot pan, but more like instant coffee granules spilling onto a wet kitchen floor. You are left with sludge, a mess that you wish you a nearby adult would clean up, until you remember that you are the only adult in the vicinity, and no one else is coming to do any cleaning. In doing so, Cadence has become the Holden Caufield of the 21st century, which is not quite the sterling recommendation lovers of Catcher in the Rye would like to think it is. Irritating comrades Like all her fellow teenage protagonists, Cadence also has a love interest her age who goes by 'Gat'. Gat is the Montague to her Capulet, the Jack to her Rose. We are informed in both the book and show (via Cadence's expository monologue), that Gat is 'contemplation and enthusiasm. Ambition and strong coffee.' In case we missed it, we are reminded of it repeatedly, although the first time we get this opening description of him is when Cadence and Gat are both eight years old, so quite what she knows about either ambition or strong coffee at that age is a bit of a question mark. Perhaps the strong coffee is a metaphor for Gat's skin colour (owing to his Indian heritage, which of course must be given a food-oriented description if we are to have any hope of picturing what he looks like.) It certainly isn't because Gat is a caffeine addict. We have also yet to deduce what levels of ambition or contemplation Gat radiated at age eight that were picked by young Cadence. Gat is not the only person who is awarded such trite allegories. On both page and screen, Cadence's cousins and best friends, John and Mirren, come with similar labels. John, apparently, is 'bounce, effort, and snark.' Mirren, meanwhile, is 'sugar, curiosity, and rain.' How does one come spring-loaded with effort or sugar? This, like Gat's ambition and coffee, remains tantalisingly unclear, although if at least one easily impressed reviewer is to be believed, all of this is indicative of 'beautifully executed, spare, precise, and lyrical prose." In addition to being snark, sugar, and strong coffee, John, Mirren, and Gat form the bedrock of Cadence's annual sland holidays, which, as you may have guessed due to the presence of the mysterious Bad Thing, are not quite as idyllic as either lyrical prose or close-up shots of beautiful sun-kissed hair will lead you to believe. Will Cadence's besties help her find the answers she so desperately and tediously seeks? If you are the type of reader who prefers that their book or show sticks to the genre that has been promised in the blurb, then I have even more bad news for you, because We Were Liars takes liberties here as well. With a plot that moves with the speed of an elderly sloth with arthritis, we must ask ourselves: are we dealing with a murder mystery? A supernatural thriller? A medical drama? Is any of this real? Are BookTokkers high? The good news is that we do end up receiving answers for most of these questions. The bad news is that the answers will probably send you into a spiral of rage cleaning as you try to delete them from your mind. (Thoughts and prayers if you embark on this foolish book or show journey during a long-haul flight, when the advantages of rage cleaning are not available to you.) In short, I trust this public service message will have made it abundantly clear that you should definitely recommend We Were Liars - in both show and book format - to a much loathed foe. Have something to add to the story? Share it in the comments below.

Summer I Turned Pretty season 3 shifts timeline and deepens drama with major plot changes
Summer I Turned Pretty season 3 shifts timeline and deepens drama with major plot changes

Express Tribune

time2 days ago

  • Express Tribune

Summer I Turned Pretty season 3 shifts timeline and deepens drama with major plot changes

The third and final season of The Summer I Turned Pretty has premiered on Prime Video, bringing a four-year time jump and significant deviations from Jenny Han's third novel, We'll Always Have Summer. The beloved coming-of-age series continues to follow Isabel 'Belly' Conklin (Lola Tung) as she navigates a complicated love triangle with brothers Conrad (Christopher Briney) and Jeremiah Fisher (Gavin Casalegno). This season opens with Belly in her junior year at Finch College, joined by her best friend Taylor (Rain Spencer) and longtime boyfriend Jeremiah. The show extends the novel's original two-year jump into a four-year leap, creating more space for believable relationship dynamics and adult character development. Jeremiah, still reeling from college party culture, discovers he's graduating late due to missed course updates. Belly, meanwhile, finds a new calling in sports psychology after a career-ending volleyball injury. Her brother Steven (Sean Kaufman), having graduated early from Princeton, now works at a tech start-up with Adam Fisher (Tom Everett Scott). Beyond academics and careers, the series introduces entirely new subplots—most notably, Steven's unexpected car accident. After rekindling a secret romance with Taylor, Steven gets into a heated argument with her and is T-boned by another vehicle. He falls into a medically induced coma but survives, using the incident as a wake-up call to rethink his priorities. He ends things with Taylor, unaware she was about to propose giving their relationship another try. Jeremiah's character arc also takes a dramatic turn. Unlike the novel, which included a single act of infidelity, the series reveals that he cheated on Belly twice. Despite this, Jeremiah proposes to her shortly after, and Belly surprisingly agrees—raising questions about whether their relationship can survive. With creator Jenny Han hinting that the finale may diverge from the book's ending, fans are left wondering not only who Belly ends up with—but how far the show is willing to rewrite its source material.

Adria Arjona replaces Taylor Russell in ‘The Crown Affair' remake
Adria Arjona replaces Taylor Russell in ‘The Crown Affair' remake

Express Tribune

time3 days ago

  • Express Tribune

Adria Arjona replaces Taylor Russell in ‘The Crown Affair' remake

Adria Arjona has officially taken over the high-stakes female lead in The Thomas Crown Affair remake, following Taylor Russell's sudden departure. The casting switch has sparked waves of curiosity across the industry, with many speculating about what led to the change, and what Arjona brings to the role. With production already underway in London, the studio moved fast to replace Russell, reportedly fielding a flood of calls from agents once the part reopened. Arjona joins Michael B. Jordan, who not only stars in the remake but also directs. The stylish heist thriller, a reimagining of the 1968 classic, is being produced by Amazon MGM Studios and boasts a cast stacked with prestige: Kenneth Branagh, Lily Gladstone, Danai Gurira, Pilou Asbæk, and Aiysha Hart round out the ensemble. The film is targeting a theatrical release on March 5, 2027. This marks another major win for Arjona, who has been steadily climbing the Hollywood ranks. Her acclaimed performance in Andor helped catapult her into bigger projects, and her recent collaborations with Amazon, like Blink Twice, cemented her as a studio favorite. She'll also appear in Prime Video's upcoming crime drama Criminal, furthering her TV momentum. While plot details remain locked down, insiders suggest the new Thomas Crown Affair will lean into modern romance, tech-savvy crime, and sharp psychological tension. The project is being penned by Drew Pearce, building on a draft originally developed by Wes Tooke and Justin Britt-Gibson. Producers include Jordan's Outlier Society, Charles Roven's Atlas Entertainment, and Marc Toberoff. The internet responded quickly to the casting update, with fans applauding the upgrade. Comments across X and TikTok already frame Arjona as the film's secret weapon, with users buzzing about her chemistry with Jordan and her ability to 'own every frame.'

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store