The Castle of Sand starts out promisingly enough. Two detectives, one experienced, and the other a rookie, are trying to track down the identity of a murdered man. They only have two clues, and every time they think they have a lead, they hit a dead end. But soon, the pieces begin to fall together. Based on a wildly popular novel, The Castle of Sand was directed by Yoshitaro Nomura, who was sometimes referred to as the "Japanese Hitchcock", for reasons that escape me, because his style has absolutely nothing in common with Hitch's. While this is certainly a very good-looking film, with well-drawn characters, and a good deal of suspense, it is also very manipulative, and overly sentimental and melodramatic. The last forty minutes, while well-directed, and emotional, are also quite saccharine, and dip into territory one would expect from a Lifetime or Hallmark murder mystery, rather than a film that many regard highly. I am torn on how to feel about this, because on one hand, I am a sucker for sentimental melodrama, but on the other hand, I would like to think I know better than to give into such cheap material. The police procedural portions of The Castle of Sand are so impressive and engaging that it really is a shame the film falls into the rut of melodrama. Maybe if the whole film had been melodramatic, I would have been more willing to accept it, but not when such a well-built mystery is dragged down into a box-of-tissues, super syrupy, tearjerking all-out melodrama that we are supposed to take seriously at face-value. Or maybe this is cynical of me to say, and I am suppressing my heart. But, no, I am confident that I am not, because there is a difference between the sentiment and the sentimental, between genuine emotion and artificial manipulation. The Castle of Sand is an entertaining film, boasting strong performances and some nice cinematography, but I could not help but feel as if I had been violated after watching it.
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