It’s not a Groundhog Day ripoff.

The Map of Tiny Perfect Things, which premiered on Amazon Prime last week is a movie about a guy stuck in a time loop, reliving the same day over and over again. But there’s more to the story.

By the time we meet Mark, (Kyle Allen) he’s already mastered his do-over day. He wakes, banters with his sister and dad, and then leaves to go to summer school…except not really.

Mark really makes his way through town, already a pro at where to be at any given moment. He knows who is going to leave their coffee on top of their car, when to swerve to avoid a sprinkler, and where the pretty girl who needs directions wants to go. It’s obvious that he’s been stuck in this day for a long time.

At the end of every day, Mark’s dad explains to him that the family can’t afford to send him to art school, and then midnight strikes and a new day begins.

Part of Mark’s daily routine involves meeting up with that same pretty girl later at the pool and helping her avoid falling in, just so he can chat her up. Everything goes according to plan…until it doesn’t.

One day at the pool, someone new strolls in between Mark and the object of his affections. This new variable in a day that has been constant for so long intrigues and disturbs Mark, and he focuses all his time on finding her.

Margaret, played by Kathryn Newton (Freaky) is the variable. Like Mark, she is stuck in the same daily loop, but unlike Mark, she is not terribly bothered by it. She understands the impermanence of a day that must be relived; why bother finding the lost dog today when he’s just going to go missing again?

Margaret, who wants to be an astrophysicist, is content to enjoy her endless summer day, and she reluctantly starts spending the afternoons with Mark, less to solve their temporal crisis than to show each other the best parts of their day – the tiny perfect things of the title.

But Mark starts to want more, and that includes Margaret, but despite her obvious attraction to Mark, she tells him she can only offer friendship and disappears at the end of each day without explanation.

Mark, who visits almost daily with his best friend Henry (Jermaine Harris) knows that he’s living out Groundhog Day (that movie, along with Edge of Tomorrow, exists in this world.) But he and Henry (who is doomed to forget their daily conversations) have already determined that Bill Murray’s solution isn’t working for Mark.

Instead, Mark has to come to an important realization: this isn’t about him. In fact, it’s not even his story. After this perspective shift, the other people in Mark’s life – his parents, his sister, his teacher – come into sharper focus, leading him down the path to becoming a better person.

Now Margaret’s story becomes important, and together, she and Mark combine forces to figure out how to become unstuck in time.

The movie is less about that goal, though, then it is about those little moments that Mark and Margaret map out. There’s no bombast here; though Mark and Margaret can let off steam by being destructive, director Ian Samuels keeps the camera focused on the quiet moments, the soundtrack on gently strumming guitar tunes.

The movie which is based on a story by Lev Grossman, isn’t perfect. Mark and Margaret’s characters seem to have much more wisdom than teens typically do, though if they were typical anything, this wouldn’t be their story. And a major plot point hinges on coincidence, though in a world where there is only one day to live, it’s entirely possible to accept the impossible might happen.

I was immediately drawn into and enjoyed my time exploring The Map of Tiny Perfect Things. Highly recommended.