House of Cards (1993)

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Strong and Moving!

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Better Late Then Never

The great things about this film make me forget the obvious concessions to box office: the uselessness of Tommy Lee's over dramatic character, or the cheesy ending.The beauty of this is all in the multiple structures presented to us, both physically and metaphorically, and how they are layered in such a way that moving one affects all the others, like a house of cards. How they are put together is flawed, and it lacks the subtleties and hooks of any Medem script. But it's a glorious try, a world of connections of all sorts.The first gate to this world are the Maya pyramids, so carefully photographed in the clever initial sequence in Mexico. There we are given key concepts to interpret the whole thing: The ascending dynamic of this (highly spiritual) shape, the tragedy of the father's death, which triggers the whole plot, and the moon – introduced in a clumsy way, as the cosmic witness to the tragedy and as some old folk Indian tale.Later we fold the idea of the abstract structure that is the "key" to our girl's mind into the idea of a physical shape, that of a spiral, conceptually close to the conception of a Maya pyramid. The girl actually builds the thing, using common cards and some Tarot cards, providing us another key to another abstract structured cosmic world: metaphorical links between cards and several realities; a whole cosmology of its own.In between you get hints at other parallel, strong structures: 1 – before becoming an autist the girl spoke three languages; 2 – trees… she climbs them, repeating the ascending movement, and she disguises herself as one… she becomes it!; 3 – the construction site and the crane, an obvious reference, as it is the fact that the mother is an engineer, a designer of structures (the 3d stuff does sound middle- aged to our BIM days…)The spiral is replicated in a greater scale by the mother, she actually builds her own gate to her daughter (building up for the obvious climax). What you get is the beautiful idea of a physical structure as the metaphor for a spiritual link, and the act of building as a symbol of reaching for someone. This is underscored by the seemingly shared dream between our girls, which i found pretty lame. So the result is a sort of maternal built love. You have to love it!

This review is meant to offer 2 overlooked, and hopefully to some, important points about this film; 1, my take on a viewpoint about a common defect in psychology, frequently "criticized" in film story lines (One Flew Over The Cukokoo's Nest"); and 2, an important point other reviewers may have missed about the native-American in the high-rise construction scene. Number two first: I'm guessing the writer was trying to share the unique and valuable reputation that the Mohican tribe has gained over the decades as having some form of inborn special talent as iron workers and incomparable abilities to work at great heights with amazing balance and self-confidence. If one believes in the ability of children to read more about the intangible side of people than adults can then the writers selecting a such a scene to share with viewers about Mohicans also shows the child's ability to connect with another person who shared her lack of fear for heights, besides just this mans color of skin (similar to what she had experienced at the archaeological site where this child's father was killed in a falling accident). On point number one, since I have worked with so-called mentally disconnected people, I have NOT always found them as "out-of-it" as professionally claimed. That once famous British psychiatrist C.J. Laing, had a lot to say about this area of so-called "normality". Therefore for me, I found myself back in an argumentative mood with some of the things I used to do in the early 60's that also had unexpected success and for me this WAS the main point the film tried to make. That is this; the difference in the approach of the DR. versus the mom to "bring Sally back" can be summed-up so simply; he was trying to force Sally to come-back to normalcy on HIS terms while the mom was trying to LEAD Sally back by trying to discover how to meet her IN her world on HER terms, if SHE was ready. Take the mom's figuring out what the two boys were REALLY doing who just were exchanging 5 digit numbers as ALL they could converse about. The mom tuned-in quietly went home, input these numbers in the computer and the next day was able to fully join the boys in their conversation, which really upset the arrogant Dr. who himself could have previously done the same at any time and so STILL didn't have a clue. Those who've read and appreciated C.J. Laing, may really have an extra appreciation for this movies as well as those who believe in being way more careful about the human-freedom-rights of so-called mental patients by first exercising a little more intuition and empathy before applying their force and trickery to mandate, NOW, their coming-back to a world they had chosen to leave! Instead try to meet them with love, in their world to see if they are ready to be led back and if not ready yet at least one can try again later and be there when they are ready. I

Wow, first may I say how much this movie blew. Maybe it's because I'm familiar with child psychology, but the whole story-line was one big disaster. This movie has nothing to do with autism, (I noticed a reference to that in other comments from viewers) they pretty much thrust you into the movie, the girl is traumatized by her fathers death, (which she didn't see) and the idea is given at the end that the girl is able to see her fathers death through her mother when she is looking at her (telepathy?) and suddenly, she's healed! Tommy Lee Jones being the psychologist doesn't do it, the architect mom does. Sorry, but I'm not an idiot. That doesn't happen in the real world. Anyone who liked this movie probably also thought "Attack of The Killer Tomatoes" was representative of why we should monitor the: food Vs. genetics issues. Rent something like "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" to cleanse your cinematic palate and give yourself some well deserved laughs. I gave it a rating of two just because I like Mr Jones.

I absolutely loved this movie. It is so different than any other movie I've seen (and I've seen plenty!). People who commented on this movie say that its not reality-that they didn't go into certain aspects of the "problems" at hand in the movie...well, that's what movies are all about. They take you to a different dimension that's not of this world. And this movie deals with taking us to a different world of a child going into a different world. And that, everyone, is what it's all about. I highly recommend this movie to anyone who doesn't want to see the same storyline used in 90% of all movies today, with a touch of dreamscape, and a whole lot of heart. Tommy Lee Jones is perfect as usual, as well as Kathleen Turner. WATCH IT!