House of Cards (1993)

Beautiful, moving film.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Watching this film was akin to taking a flight you've taken dozens of times before. Familiar route. Decent meal. Comfortable seat, if a bit lumpy. Slight gust of wind in the air, but nothing to sweat about. Then, all of a sudden... one of the engine breaks down. EMERGENCY. PEOPLE RUNNING EVERYWHERE. YOU'RE HURTLING TO EARTH AT 1000 MILES AN HOUR. SCREAMING. KIDS CRYING. WE'RE NOT GONNA MAKE IT. SAY YOUR PRAYERS. IT'S THE MOTHER OF ALL NOSEDIVES... Yep, you get the picture.I shall now describe the scene in intricate detail. Kathleen Turner plays the mother of a girl who recently, following the death of her father and Turner's husband, has gone mute, unresponsive to human contact and has taken to climbing tall structures. She's already had a couple of close shaves involving a tree and the roof back home... So what does her Oh-So-Intelligent caregiver do? Why, takes her to work with her. Turner plays a head ARCHITECT. She's in the middle of a HUGE project. There are cranes, unfinished buildings and dangers everywhere. Hmm... My spidey sense is picking up something here...And, guess who Turner leaves her extremely vulnerable daughter with, during this unwise little jaunt? Why, no other than her dozy brother... Who we've already established is as thick as two short planks. Despite KNOWING his sibling is in a bad way, and cannot be left unattended for any length of time... What does he do? Why, COMPLETELY ignore her for the duration while she's able to get out of the back seat, climb a nearby ladder and walk along a narrow platform 500 feet in the air. It's only when one of the workers spots her, she's able to be saved.MY. GOD. This is worse parenting than those idiots you read about in the paper who go on holiday... Leaving their kids alone for a week in an empty house. At least they're not at any immediate risk... In this film, Turner TAKES HER DAUGHTER to THE WORST POSSIBLE PLACE for someone in her condition, then compounds the error by having her useless son babysit her.At the inevitable custody meeting afterwards, she has the cheek to think she has a leg to stand on... And, almost unbelievably, she manages to AVOID getting her child taken away... By doormat doctor Tommy Lee Jones who's only proviso is that he see her once a day.The final nail in the coffin here is that Turner DOES NOT FEEL RESPONSIBLE for making such a grievous error and her dumb, dumb son DOES NOT GET PUNISHED OR EXPRESS ANY REGRET FOR HIS HUGE LAPSE IN CONCENTRATION... And even tries to beat up Jones when he arrives to collect his sister. Instead of saying "Nice right hook" to the little punk, he should have pressed charges... There and then.Are we supposed to like these people? This little girl is quite clearly living in a hazardous environment and should be removed post haste. But, nope... Rather than ask questions about Turner's dubious suitability to be a parent, or whether her son really WAS dropped on his head as a baby, it prefers to bore us senseless with endless scenes of the little girl during pointless cr*p which is supposed to be meaningful. After the umpteenth moment of her screaming or staring blankly at the camera, I came to the conclusion that ANY kid could play this role. No wonder 'Asha Menina' didn't star in another movie for 17 years. She doesn't exactly strike you as the next Shirley Temple...Oh yes, of course the 'cards' in the title. The girl constructs a huge tower of cards around her one morning, and Turner takes lots of pictures of it before it collapses. SOMEWHERE in that diagram there is a clue behind her vegetative state. So she uploads the photos to her computer, makes a 3D model of them, strolls around it using a VERY old virtual reality helmet, and eventually, builds an exact replica made of a wood of it in her back garden.Instead of being moving, charming, or poignant, it is instead utterly ridiculous and stupid. And never so much as in the finale, where I can't even BEGIN to describe what goes down. All that I can tell you is it is one half unashameable cornball sentimentality, the other incoherent unwatchable mayhem. My conclusion: Everyone knew they had a turkey on their hands, and just gave up as this juncture.And it all started off so well. Comparably speaking... The mediocre first 50 minutes is a godsend compared to what unfolds afterwards. There are no survivors, the debris is scattered over the whole continent... And somewhere, two hours of your life are weeping at your squandering of them. YOU'LL NEVER GET THEM BACK... 2/10

I for one LOVED this movie! there are some awesome scenes and to share it would ruin watching the movie.basically the childs parents are arhciologists and her father dies at a dig site. they are living in south America and the girl has a friend who is friends of the family he tells her her father is in the moon. shes a child so she believes it.the mother not knowing what to do with her self decides to take the girl back to America.. (bad move on my thought the girl just lost her father and now suffers culture shock!) but thats what makes a movie right? so they go back to America severing the young girl from all of her safety zones and she naturally withdraws into herself. however she withdraws so completely she no longer communicates with the outside world she does some AMAZING things. anyway i love this movie yes I'm vague. because you have to see the movie totally get the grasp of it. the comment above me did nothing more than bash one of my most loved movies. and you should pay it no mind they obviously had a bad day at the time of writing the review. which is what a blog is for not a imd! any who i really love this movie and think you should try it out!

Having seen 'House of Cards' a number of times now, I never fail to find this film a involving and intriguing on every viewing. The film revolves around the Ruth Matthews, whose husband dies in a fall and who risks also losing her six-year-old daughter Sally when she retreats into her own world falling the death of her father. As child psychologist Jake determines that the best way to treat Sally is to use therapies similar to how he counsels his autistic patients, Ruth resorts to more eccentric methods of reaching out to her daughter.A number of people seem to dislike 'House of Cards' because they feel it portrays easy cures to autism. However, like other fans of the film, I never believed Sally was autistic but instead was deeply grief-stricken and mentally withdrew from the traumatic world around her, taking on autistic-like traits, so she could try to devise ways to contact her dead father. This theory meant that, for me, this film was not about autism but rather a family coping with loss and grief in different ways and that was what made it both touching and engaging.The adult actors-- Kathleen Turner who played Ruth and Tommy Lee Jones who played Jake-- were both brilliant and you genuinely felt that they both loved this child and were determined to do to whatever it took to help her, albeit in different ways. However, it was the child actors who were truly excellent. For such a young child, Asha Menina was perfect in portraying Sally's emotional distance as she retreated into her own little world. And Shiloh Strong delivered a strong performance as Sally's teenage brother, who was fiercely devoted to his mother and sister and determined to be the man of the family.This film truly succeeded in reminding us that young children can view death very differently from adults and in showing us that there tradition psychological treatments are not always right for everybody. Combined with the haunting soundtrack, 'House of Cards' is enjoyable and will keep you thinking.

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.