Customer Reviews

House of Cards

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an excellent movie for the whole family. It features Kathleen Turner in a mature role and Tommy Lee Jones in a more serious (Less action-figure) role. It deals with loss, grief and how it affects each of us differently. It also shows one family's strength in overcoming their loss in a very unique and intriguing way. I highly recommend this movie to everyone.

I found the Story-Line very captivating. Kathleen Turner protraid her character as a Mother coming to grips with a problem "out-of-the-blue" very convincingly.
I could not stop watching.

I remembered seeing this film many years ago and i never forgot it... i'm very happy to have found this film here on amazon. This film completely touched my heart, it made me cry alot, felt so sorry for the little girl. I love films that make me cry, i think its just astonishing how grief affects everyone so differently and the directors portrayed this in such an amazing way with the autism, a really really great film, i would definitely recommend this to anyone, you'll never forget it.

Many people mistakenly believe that because autistic children are featured in the film, that this is a movie about autism. It is not. Little Sally Matthews deals with the loss of her father by refusing to speak. Her mother, Kathleen Turner, and autistic specialist, Tommy Lee Jones, do not understand that Sally is dealing with her grief by trying to speak with her father through the house of cards she builds. Listen carefully to what the South American shaman says to Sally about communicating with her father who has gone to live among the stars. The scene where Sally "becomes" a tree is a Sally who has found her center and is in complete oneness with herself and the world. It left me speechless.

I remember when my mom had brought this movie home from the, video rental store it wasn't the typical run of the mill Tommy Lee Jones and Kathleen Turner movie.I wasn't sure if was going to like it or not but i popped it into the old proverbial video cassette player and it started to play and get going. The two things i did like about it right away was that Kathleen Turner wasn't playing her typical crabby women roles she played a dramatic part of a mother who is frantically trying to understand and help her daughter physically with her autistic and savant type of behavior.Tommy Lee Jones was perfect for this role how was able to divorce himself from the tough guy roles is beyond me but one thing I will tell you for sure is how made the role look so credible as a doctor who along with the girls mother try to make heads or tails out of her special situation, him and Kathleen turners on screen chemistry was something i would call pure cinema.

I must say, I was very surprised to find it completely wrapped: BRAND NEW!! No problems whatsoever! :) Wonderful seller!

I won't give the details but the movie starts out rather strong. Asha Menina, who plays "Sally" out-acted all of her more famous adult counterparts -- and a site listed her as being 8 at the time!!! Oddly this is her only credited movie/tv appearance. My wife and I were like "Wow...she can act". However, just as the plot thickens and the movie is getting really good...it ends...with a nice wrapped up in a bow total resolution practically ex deus machina style ending... My wife, teenager and I all looked at each other in disbelief like "that's it?". Other reviewers wondered if the movie was messed with a bit much in post-production. There is probably good reason for that.

The last half to last quarter of the film kept me from giving this film a "thumbs down" due to the cliched acting and dialogue in the first half.

It was not believable to think that the girl's autism went unnoticed by the mother until pointed out by the doctor. Please.

DVDs are a great way of including some special features for viewers. Charge a bit more for these features. The story of this film cries out for commentary on the condition dramaztized. And in the beginning of the film, it would have been helpful to have had the option of turning on some subtitles during the foreign language dialogue.

What turned around my interest level in the film was when the brother calls the mother in to look at the structure (intentionally not specified here for any readers who have not seen the film) that the girl has created. Viewers of the film will know what I am referring to in my mentioning that the film's title was a mystery to me. I was unable to figure out the significance of why that title was used.

And later on, the cinematograhy shown as the mother is able to view the world, the mystery world, that her daughter sees with an aid (again, intentionally not specified here), was magical.

The ability to communicate with other people using a different language was shown to good advantage in the film. I just wish that the main characters roles had been written giving them more self-knowledge instead of acting with deep ignorance about their own limitations of knowing the world.

The film is very slow moving, and if you can get past the first half's melodrama and Hollywood "C grade" acting and writing, it's worth staying awake for the second half.

The DVD I got was in great condition, no scratched - no damage that I could see. There are a couple of little editing quirks, but they were there before it was put on DVD. I'm quite happy with my purchase.