The House of Sand (2006)

Maybe it's a male/female perspective (the mother daughter relationships were so spot on), or an American/Brazilian difference in perspective, but I can not understand all the negative comments on the board regarding this movie! To me it is a haunting little masterpiece I will not soon forget. The standout acting, the stunning yet eerie landscape setting, the subtle plot, and the music are reminiscent of Kurosawa's deeply minimal but hugely philosophical dramas. Add to that, a brilliantly BIG viewfinder of a camera and a really superb space science sub plot this movie is almost epic. I was surprised by it's simplicity and astonished by it's depth. The director may be young but his soul is ever so old.

To say this movie is inert is much too great an understatement. It makes the dictionary look like an explosive dramatic novel. Critics would have you believe that great cinematography and scenery can substitute substance. Such a belief is akin to touting grass growing as breakthrough cinema just because it's being broadcasted in HD.The movie establishes from the beginning that the true star is the scenery. There are but a dozen words in the first 20 minutes of the film, a trend that continues throughout and grows weary if you can manage to stay up. The sound of the wind and crashing waves are terrific for putting you to sleep. But they hardly constitute a gripping drama.For reasons that are never explained, a very stubborn man takes his wife and her mother to what amount to a sand dune. What follows is a very long depiction of the most uninteresting lives in the entire continent of South America. If the premise is not absurd enough, we get treated to three generations of insignificant characters and a whole lot of desert nature. A desert that's much too kind in my opinion. A real desert would've killed the first generation in this boring movie and spared me 90 minutes of garbage.

From Brazil begins this unusual tale taking place in their early 20th century's untamed deserts, leading a distraught man, his wife, with family and following, to the absurd notion of settling into the middle of an elusive waterhole, centered in the middle of an endless sandscape, into one eventual House of Sand. What transpires from the mysterious setup of this piece is captured with quite dignity, accentuated with the production values that would have any techie humbled by the tough shoot this crew must have undergone to balance the artsy direction to the harsh environment. It is to the film's detriment then, that the vast majority of time is spent milking the unique aesthetics involved here, insensitively editing many of the beautifully photographed shots which adds up to a whole that unwittingly imitates it's protagonist's plight a little too closely- that of sinking into the ground of nothingness. Fortunately a cleverly conceived, though questionably rendered plot device snaps the viewer's interest back late in the game, even rounding out the mostly one trick affair on a profound note. This extra dimension carved out in the third act does save this House from blowing away for the artistic excuse a lot of it seems to be.

I loved this movie because it is fully of truthful contrasts. The larger story portrays the passing of time and immense global changes through war, scientific and technological advances. Everything changes, yet stays the same. Regardless of the generation, youth longs for excitement and change, while time brings calmness and acceptance of circumstance. The most amazing part is all is that the passing of time is portrayed from within an oasis in the middle of sand dunes where the sands of time pass slowly yet surely. This contrast, and the circumstances that bring the characters there, leave the audience wondering witch they would choose, the simple, calm, and relaxed life of the sand, or the stressful, competitive, yet object filled life in the city.It's important to stay sharp to catch the change in generations because the actresses remain the same throughout, but this only adds to the story's message once you figure it out. I gave it a 10