Anne (Geraldine Chaplin), a wealthy French septuagenarian vacationing at the seaside town of Las Terrenas in the Dominican Republic, romances a much younger Dominican woman, Noeli (Yanet Mojica), who works as a prostitute. Yeremi (Ricardo Ariel Toribio), Noeli's boyfriend, trades the gifts that Noeli receives from Anne for cash at a local pawn shop. Despite that Noeli lets other foreigners besides Anne pamper her with money and gifts in exchange for a relationship, Anne nonetheless feels a strong connection with her and falls in love.

      Co-writers/directors Israel Cárdenas and Laura Amelia Guzmán trust the audience's patience because the quietly moving Sand Dollars takes its time to hook and reel you in with its lean and deceptively simple plot. You gradually learn more and more about Anne and Noeli as the film progresses. Anne is a clearly lonely, sad and emotionally needy, and her love of Noeli is unrequited. It's interesting to observe how their relationship as well as Noeli and her boyfriend's relationship evolve. To be fair, though, more character development and backstory would have enriched the film with depth. What compensates for that, though, are the raw, emotionally convincing performances by Geraldine Chaplin, one of the best actresses of our time (better than Meryl Streep, even---there, I said it!), and Yanet Mojica. Kudos to the co-directors for capturing the serenity and picturesque quality of Las Terrenas' landscape while avoiding the use of narration, flashbacks and including a somber, haunting and un-Hollywood ending that trusts the audience's intelligence and provides some realistic closure via the lyrics of a beautifully melancholic song.