House of Sand (***3/4)

--> --> ? Having been led by her husband across the windy, barren landscape of Northeastern Brazil to a nearly unpopulated coastal area in 1910, a woman (Fernanda Torres) struggles to find a means to leave, or to accommodate. The only other inhabitants are her mother and a few ex-slaves and their descendents. Brazilian star (and 1999 Oscar nominee) Fernanda Montenegro, who is the mother of Torres, plays the same role in the movie. As time goes by, the roles of the mother and daughter shift.

+ This is an absolutely beautiful movie, both in the story it tells and the stunning way the landscape is filmed. I see a lot of movies where the characters’ lives look more fun than mine, but this isn’t one of one of them. Yet other people’s boredom can become compelling when distilled into a two-hour drama. In the way House of Sand observes its main character dealing with enforced isolation, it reminded me of Cast Away, which I loved. As with that movie, when it skips ahead in time I felt almost cheated by not seeing what happened in the meantime. I don’t want to overextend the comparison, because in other ways the movies are very different. There’s no Tom Hanks talking to a volleyball. There’s not much talking at all, which is something I liked in this case. And the time period covered is far longer. When news comes of the outbreak of the Great War, it’s already ended. In a short time, this movie transports you to a place and time when it was possible to be that isolated. The ending is simple and cathartic.

- I did wonder what the woman did all day when she wasn’t scheming to leave. However, I think these parts of the story are intentionally left for the viewer to fill in.

= ***3/4 Not quirky minimalist like the movies of Jim Jarmusch (Broken Flowers), but haunting minimalist, sort of like those of South Korea’s Ki-duk Kim (3-Iron, Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter... and Spring), this may not be a movie for everyone. It’s not as depressing as it may seem, but there’s no laughs either. Still, I found it a moving piece about the way that the choices we make, and the choices life makes for us, shape our lives.

IMDb link