Task: Sentiment Analysis
Input (English): No Form of Escape . With a pacing that only Tsai Ming-liang could love and deliberate scenery shots that you are forced to enjoy "House of Sand" steps into the genre best described as the Foreign Doldrums. Moving as fast as thick molasses never wins any points in my book and considering that that seems to be the main goal of this film we didn't get along too well. The entirety of the movie takes place in the Brazilian desert, a place that we movie fans rarely get to see. However, as you may have guessed, not a lot happens out there. There isn't even a weeping camel out there to keep us company. We watch as a crazy old guy moves his family out into the middle of nowhere (no explanation given) and then dies, stranding everybody else there for three generations. I know, how can I criticize a plot for not having any developments (other than the startling revelation that somewhere out yonder sells salt!) when in reality nothing would ever happen to these characters. And to that I would say that this was not the best yarn to commit to film.    Pretty much everything goes as would be expected. People walk around bored, some of them die off, there are some minor romances, and everything looks beautiful. About ten years in a group of soldiers shows up and Aurea, the crazy man's wife, desperate for anything that moves, strikes up a love affair with one of them. He promises to take her out of the desert, but unforeseen problems prevent that from happening. Throughout more soldiers will arrive, and the females will always view them as tickets out of town, there to be seduced and exploited. Do I believe that these fellow travelers are the only way these women could escape their destiny? Maybe, maybe not. In the end the point is made that living in the Brazilian desert is just about the same as living on the moon, to which I would have to think that moving your family into the middle of the desert and then croaking might to be too smart.    Another minor complaint I would like to air is the usage of the same actors to play different roles. It would be fine, in a "Three Times" kind of way, had they bothered to label the passage of time. Instead I was left playing catch up thinking that somehow the grandma had risen from the grave. There is a fairly graphic sex scene somewhere in the middle that might shock you out of your slumber, but really the only use it has is spicing up this overtly bland stew. You have to be in a certain kind of mood to watch a movie like this, and even then it is nearly impossible for the director to pull off. "Rain" and "Elephant" leap to mind as masterpieces of this technique. These characters really may have been marooned out in no man's land, but unfortunately for the filmmakers the exit of the theater is just a few short steps away. I wasn't lucky enough to have seen this in theaters, but I would have been mighty interested to see how many people took a walk. Awe-inspiring cinematography does not make a movie. . .and here is my proof. **1/4
Output (English): NEG