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 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