Leonard Maltin's 151 Best Movies You've Never Seen - Maltin, Leonard [36]
This is a saga that spans several decades. We first meet Bobby as a boy in the late 1960s, in thrall to his older brother, then as an adolescent in the mid-1970s, when he forms a friendship with Jonathan. After the latest in a series of traumatic experiences, he moves in with Jonathan’s family, welcomed by his understanding mother (Sissy Spacek) and father (Matt Frewer). They provide a safe haven for the sensitive teenager, who just wants a simple, happy life.
Jonathan is gay, and while he fools around with Bobby early on, Bobby isn’t so certain about his sexual identity. In the early 1980s Jonathan (now played by Dallas Roberts) leaves his hometown of Cleveland for New York City. Bobby (Colin Farrell) stays behind, but when his surrogate parents retire to Arizona, he comes to Greenwich Village and catches up with Jonathan, who has moved in with a hippieish “older woman,” nicely played by Robin Wright Penn.
Together they form a family unit, and while there are complications in this triangle relationship, and crises to be dealt with, the characters come to realize they have a bond that can’t be shaken.
Cunningham’s characters reflect their times, and changing attitudes around them; the result is a delicate and moving story about redefining the traditional notion of family. Acclaimed theater director Michael Mayer never directed a film before this, but clearly understood all the nuances of the screenplay. The acting is exceptionally good, with standout work from Colin Farrell, atypically cast as a gentle soul, screen newcomer Dallas Roberts as his lifelong friend, Robin Wright Penn as a woman who’s been around and is still searching for answers, and Sissy Spacek as an open-hearted mom.
A Home at the End of the World is superior adult drama that unfolds like a good novel.
50. THE HOUSE OF SAND
(2005)
Directed by Andrucha Waddington
Screenplay by Elena Soárez
Story by Luiz Carlos Barreto, Elena Soárez, and Andrucha Waddington
Actors:
FERNANDA MONTENEGRO
FERNANDA TORRES
RUY GUERRA
SEU JORGE
LUIZ MELODIA
ENRIQUE DÍAZ
STÊNIO GARCIA
EMILIANO QUEIROZ
I love movies that take me to another time and place, and that’s one of the qualities that makes a Brazilian film called The House of Sand worth seeing. From the very first scene—set in 1910—we’re swept away to a desolate spot at the edge of the desert called Maranhão, in the northern part of Brazil, where a madman brings his wife and her mother, intending to make a home there. He is caught up in a crazy scheme and they are his unfortunate victims. The wife is played by Fernanda Torres, and the mother is played by the grande dame of Brazilian cinema, Fernanda Montenegro. If you saw Central Station in 1998, I’m certain you’ll remember her; she was nominated for an Academy Award for that performance, and she does exceptional work again in this unusual story.
At first, the young wife will do anything to get away from this place, but fate, and the elements, are against her. In time she begins to make her peace with the environment and meets a fisherman (Seu Jorge) who is able to help her and her daughter, as they are now forced to fend for themselves. There are other occasional (and intriguing) encounters with visitors to their remote spot on the map, but this remains their home as one generation melts into another. The story elapses over sixty years’ time altogether, and in an audacious but fascinating pas de deux, the two actresses switch the roles of mother and daughter to reflect the passage of the years. (I can’t think of another film where this has been done.)
The House of Sand is a mood piece that casts an almost-hypnotic spell with haunting images (photographed in wide screen by Ricardo Della Rossa), sounds, and performances. I was completely caught up in that spell, but I’m going to let you in on something I didn’t know while I was watching the film: the two female stars are mother and daughter in