House of Cards is a really unusual story, and you have to really pay attention to understand what is going on. It juxtaposes modern medicine with Mayan ritual, but you have to listen to the conversations with the Mayan man and Sally (Asha Menina) to understand what she's going through. I'll try not to give too much away, but I have to talk about the ending because that is what is confusing people.
The movie begins with the father dying from a fall at an archaeological dig in South America. The little girl is only about 5, but she's multilingual, speaking Spanish and a native Mayan dialect fluently as well as English. We hear Sally's memories as narration, the Mayan man that she spent so much time with telling her how to become very quiet, how to deal with her grief, and that her father now lives on the moon. The family leaves for the States shortly after the father's death, so this little girl who has only really known the people at the site is taken from an extended support system to a rural American setting. Her mother and brother are so caught up in the move and their grief that they don't really notice Sally has stopped talking. As she begins to exhibit extraordinary powers like climbing and throwing or catching a ball with freakish ability, the brother notices but doesn't really tell their mom.
Sally's "symptoms" create concern in the local authorities when she climbs up building equipment trying to reach the moon, where she's been told her father is now. They only manage to get her down because the worker that goes after her is Native American and she trusts him. No one ever mentions this in the movie, but he's the only one she responds to during her mourning spell. A therapist who is assigned to deal with Sally and her family struggles to define the problems and the extreme gifts demonstrated by Sally. He's using modern techniques that are unable to reach the girl. Her behavior becomes more bizarre, and more beautiful, leaving him to struggle with the idea of whether we enter or withdraw from the world through creativity.
In the end, the mother, played by Kathleen Turner, follows her instinct and builds a tower based on the design of Sally's house of cards. No one connects the fact that Sally's structure ended with a Major Arcana Tarot card, The Moon, and that the tower appears to be directly under the moon, as in the card. The Native man from the construction site helps the mother, as do friends and family, though they don't understand what she's doing. When the tower nears completion, the mother falls asleep on it, and she connects with Sally in a dream. She's awakened by the doctor coming across the field, where he found Sally headed for the tower.
This is where most people get lost. Sally and her mother work the problem out on an inner plane. From the outside, they appear to just be staring at each other. On the inside, Sally is expressing her grief, says good bye to her daddy, and comes back to her mom. Once Sally lets go of her dad, she is back to normal. She has no memory of her "quiet" time.
Sally's journey is a vision quest, and her mother intuitively reaches her with a ritual based on the symbols Sally has been taught. No one in the movie understands how it happens or why, so if you aren't familiar with Native American spirituality, it won't make sense - though it is still poetic and beautiful, if you let go of trying to make it fit your expectations.
I highly recommend the movie, especially for family viewing.
The movie begins with the father dying from a fall at an archaeological dig in South America. The little girl is only about 5, but she's multilingual, speaking Spanish and a native Mayan dialect fluently as well as English. We hear Sally's memories as narration, the Mayan man that she spent so much time with telling her how to become very quiet, how to deal with her grief, and that her father now lives on the moon. The family leaves for the States shortly after the father's death, so this little girl who has only really known the people at the site is taken from an extended support system to a rural American setting. Her mother and brother are so caught up in the move and their grief that they don't really notice Sally has stopped talking. As she begins to exhibit extraordinary powers like climbing and throwing or catching a ball with freakish ability, the brother notices but doesn't really tell their mom.
Sally's "symptoms" create concern in the local authorities when she climbs up building equipment trying to reach the moon, where she's been told her father is now. They only manage to get her down because the worker that goes after her is Native American and she trusts him. No one ever mentions this in the movie, but he's the only one she responds to during her mourning spell. A therapist who is assigned to deal with Sally and her family struggles to define the problems and the extreme gifts demonstrated by Sally. He's using modern techniques that are unable to reach the girl. Her behavior becomes more bizarre, and more beautiful, leaving him to struggle with the idea of whether we enter or withdraw from the world through creativity.
In the end, the mother, played by Kathleen Turner, follows her instinct and builds a tower based on the design of Sally's house of cards. No one connects the fact that Sally's structure ended with a Major Arcana Tarot card, The Moon, and that the tower appears to be directly under the moon, as in the card. The Native man from the construction site helps the mother, as do friends and family, though they don't understand what she's doing. When the tower nears completion, the mother falls asleep on it, and she connects with Sally in a dream. She's awakened by the doctor coming across the field, where he found Sally headed for the tower.
This is where most people get lost. Sally and her mother work the problem out on an inner plane. From the outside, they appear to just be staring at each other. On the inside, Sally is expressing her grief, says good bye to her daddy, and comes back to her mom. Once Sally lets go of her dad, she is back to normal. She has no memory of her "quiet" time.
Sally's journey is a vision quest, and her mother intuitively reaches her with a ritual based on the symbols Sally has been taught. No one in the movie understands how it happens or why, so if you aren't familiar with Native American spirituality, it won't make sense - though it is still poetic and beautiful, if you let go of trying to make it fit your expectations.
I highly recommend the movie, especially for family viewing.