AllMovie

A palpable sense of dread moves over this movie once the degenerate father and his boys follow Tyler (played with Ed Burns-ish panache by Michael Vartan) to his new home, and, like an ominous storm that settles in, you know there is going to be thunder and lightning and you just don't know when it's going to happen. The sickly feeling is emphasized by the first reel's menace-free sensibilities, when you think Tyler is going to go on his merry way and find the life that he and his mother had tried to make for themselves years earlier. It's sentimental and delicate, and then Teddy (a particularly unctuous Denis Leary) and Gus (Marshall Bell boasting his nastiest goo-goo eyes) show up and demonstrate how toxic they can be. There are a few too many scenes of Tyler and Jack (Norman Reedus) shouting in each other's faces, but otherwise, Sand is a taut thriller with deceptive touches. Jon Lovitz and Julie Delpy play a couple of wacko motel owners in a few throwaway scenes that try desperately to be funny. Harry Dean Stanton makes a cameo as the family attorney and Emilio Estevez shows up -- in the nick of time -- as a local eccentric.