Fernando F. Croce CinePassion Aug 30, 2009

Disregards the political shifts of Brazil's history by isolating the sprawling narrative from the rest of the nation, so that nothing can distract the director from his finicky composing

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Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews Dec 21, 2006 C+

It all seems as bleak and empty as the desert.

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Phil Villarreal Arizona Daily Star Nov 9, 2006 2/4

Both characters make gradual evolutions, but don't blame audiences if they're too dazed and dry-mouthed to notice.

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Philip Martin Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Nov 3, 2006 88/100

...a part of a classic art-house tradition, that of the starkly beautiful yet chilly movie that haunts the memory without compelling any particular attention.

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Beth Accomando KPBS.org Oct 28, 2006 7/10

House of Sand boasts the hypnotic power of its landscape and a pair of powerful and passionate performances by Montenegro and Torres.

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John Wirt Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA) Oct 27, 2006

A devastating yet beautiful film from Brazil, House of Sand tells an epic story of love and desolation.

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John Beifuss Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) Oct 13, 2006 3.5/4

At once allegorical and grimly naturalistic -- a contemplation of the sands of time set amid the drifting dunes of Brazil's unforgiving Maranahao desert.

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Jeff Vice Deseret News (Salt Lake City) Oct 6, 2006 2.5/4

This beautifully photographed drama feels slow and lethargic.

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Jason Ferguson Orlando Weekly Sep 28, 2006 4/5

The dramatic and often sad lives led by the women yield surprisingly intimate dramas considering such limitless surroundings, a contrast that's played up by the excellent cinematography.

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Robert Denerstein Denver Rocky Mountain News Sep 22, 2006 B

Cinematographer Ricardo della Rosa ... has created images of rare beauty in the midst of terrain so spectacularly strange that it sometimes seems to speak a language all its own.

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Michael Booth Denver Post Sep 22, 2006 3/4

It is a wondrous place, almost of another planet, and more than compensation for the effort to get there.

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Ann Hornaday Washington Post Sep 15, 2006

Visually dazzling, epic in its sweep and deeply romantic in its sensibility, The House of Sand is one of those films whose images and ideas linger long after the lights come on, having been burned into the viewer's consciousness.

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David Elliott San Diego Union-Tribune Sep 15, 2006 2/4

[Waddington] is bothersomely casual with the time-jumps and never makes their long survival quite believable.

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Marta Barber Miami Herald Sep 15, 2006 3.5/4

A visual work of art and its simple story moves as effortlessly as the sands in a forsaken desert in northern Brazil.

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Terry Lawson Detroit Free Press Sep 15, 2006 2/4

It ends up like an impressionist painting without a subject, one we stare at longingly, waiting for its purpose to emerge.

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Mary-Liz Shaw Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Sep 14, 2006 3/4

The thrill of seeing this movie is in the realization that we've seen nothing like it before.

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Steven Rea Philadelphia Inquirer Sep 8, 2006 3.5/4

Sensual, dreamlike, both intimate and epic, The House of Sand is a cinematic tour de force.

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Marc Mohan Oregonian Sep 8, 2006 B+

The movie has a power that's as hard to firmly grasp as the stuff on which these women build their home.

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Amy Biancolli Houston Chronicle Sep 8, 2006 3/4

Both Waddington and Soarez understand the impotence of words in this dusty setting, or the potency of just the right ones.

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