House of Cards | | Cast : | Kathleen Turner, Tommy Lee Jones | | Director : | Michael Lessac | | Studio : | Pioneer Video | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned | | Released Date : | June 25, 1993 | | DVD Released Date : | March 02, 1999 | | Language : | English (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | January 08, 2005 | | Summary | This is not a movie about Autism | Content
 | This is a about a child disturbed by the death of her father and who is told that she should not cry about it and also that her father is in the moon, a fantasy created in the mind of the child trying to thereafter trying to reach him there. One reviewer thought it was about autism, which it was not. It seems that autism has become a generalization for anything people don't understand. The mother of the child doesn't accept the conventional methods of psychology and uses her own intelligence to "decode" the puzzle of the child's disturbance and succeeds to help her to come out of her fantasy of her father being on the moon where he went after he died. It is a wonderful portrayal of a mother who won't give up and sets out to look at her daughter's disturbance in a new light, using what could be called modern shamanism to recreate the dilemma where the child can see the futility of her actually being able to get to the moon to see her father. This movie is a must see! |
| Rating | | | Date | December 19, 2004 | | Summary | LOOKING FOR COPY TO BUY...IF ANYONE KNOWS WHERE | Content
| Deal Amazon shoppers, my name is Alicia and just recently i have enjoyed the pleasure of ordering online feeling secure about my purchases. As you may know from my title, I am in the process of looking for an availiable copy of House of Cards with Tommy Lee Jones. I have scalled all across Ontario for such product and have had no liuck.. I can't even find a copy to rent...Montreal was the cloest and me being from Niagara Falls i don't see that as any use.
I know that this is spose to be used for giving reviews and i don't even know how often people actually read these things but i'm hopeing that some one out there can help me out.
My email address is amartin_717@hotmail.com and i thank you for you time
It's been about 8 years since i saw the movie, but it just happens to be one of the movies that stick in your head. I can only remeber clips of it but i know that it was good consedering i want to see it again 8 years later
If you are finish reading my novel and think you can help me out please contact me
Thanks and have a safe Holiday |
| Rating | | | Date | October 20, 2004 | | Summary | The House of Cards fell down quickly | Content
| I was confused from the start with House of Cards. Kathleen Turner stars as the widowed parent Ruth Matthews to six year-old Sally and her older brother Michael. They are somewhere in Mexico preparing to return home to North Carolina after a three year absence.
The father, Alex died while they were in Mexico while on an archealogical dig of Mayan ruins. They stayed awhile longer in Mexico after the accident that Ruth had witnessed. I did not connect with the child actress Asha Menina and felt the child was a bit off before they even arrived back in the States. The viewer was aware of her inner thoughts through her whisperings in her mind and she spoke to three weird looking dolls that were spooky. The times that House of Cards ventured into these eerie scenes reminded me of a young Sissie Spacek in Carrie, and I did not want the movie to turn in that direction.
The story was interesting, but failed on so many levels and left viewer not sure what was reality and fantasy and why autism was even suggested. Although the subject was of interest to me, this did contain poor casting choices and not enough character development.
There was such limited information concerning the father and his death and no family discussions about memories. This is where development lacked and could have been explored further. I could not even form an opinion on the father since flashbacks only showed a flashlight and legs falling down.
Ruth had a fear of heights, but it was not explained what led to this. She also did not want Sally and Michael to cry over the death of their father. I think the reason why I was not drawn to the character of Sally is the way she was presented. It was mentioned that she knew three languages, and you heard her muttering to herself in these, but they did not portray her favorably before she withdrew into herself once they were back home.
The next adult we meet is a neighbor played by Park Overall, the only perfectly suited actor in a role in House of Cards. I would have rather seen the mother portrayed by one of the actresses who starred in Designing Women, because Kathleen Turner's accent just bugs me too much.
Their house was very large with a lot of land and we only ever saw the kitchen and Sally's bedroom along with the porch. It made no sense for Sally to be sleeping in the attic with access to a window, especially after several incidents where she got out and climbed on the roof.
The first few scenes upon their arrival back home showed Sally in this crouching position, she resembled a china doll when was picked up and returned to the same form. I thought it was very weird until they showed her mother in the same position a few times. Nothing really made sense in House of Cards and many loose ends were left hanging for this viewer.
I felt the scenes where they showed students working at the school with therapists was decent, although they did push in the wrong direction when trying to get an echolaic child to ask for water, when clearly the child wanted to drink. I do not agree with the concept of withholding something from a child when they cannot communicate that need.
I did choose to view House of Cards because of the mention of autistic traits, and glad that the cover of the video did not mention autism since that was not the basis of the character or show. The parent/child bond lacked structure, was hard to follow that a child missed a parent so much when there were no flashbacks hinting to a relationship. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 14, 2003 | | Summary | Not exceptional, but Good | Content
| I have seen this movie several times, many of which were when I was still an adolescent. I have always enjoyed it. However I have found that the reviews of this movie on this site may not be accurate. Now I do not know much about autism, very little in fact, but I am sure that the filmmakers were sure that the little girl was NOT autistic. The little girl had a temporary break with reality, that was the point. I got angry several times in the movie that the mother was so resilient to treatment when the girl needed it, but it wasn't for autism. It may have looked like it, but it wasn't. As one reviewer said, if it was autism, it would have presented itself in her earlier than age 6. The theme of the movie was mysticism and a break with reality and all in all the movie did a good job with it. I recommend it for a pleasant viewing |
| Rating | | | Date | May 12, 2003 | | Summary | A miracle cure for autism? Nah!...A Hollywood cure? Yes. | Content
| This film is strictly Hollywood hype. A child showing all the symptoms of being autistic is miraculously cured by the actions of her mother, as she heroically stands up to: a) child welfare workers; b) physicians and/or psychotherapists with many years of experience dealing with autistic children; and c) common sense. Here is Kathleen Turner snatching her autistic child away from these screaming meanies, and finding her own cure for her daughters autism, although she refuses to learn anything about the disease she most unrealistically cures. This movie slaps parents of autistic children in the face with its simplistic Hollywood style cures for a most difficult medical problem. |
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