House of Sand and Fog

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House of Sand and Fog

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House of Sand and Fog

Ashley Edner, Ben Kingsley, Frances Fisher, Jennifer Connelly, Jonathan Ahdout

Massoud Amir Behrani is living a lie to fulfill a dream. Once a member of the Shah of Iran's elite inner circle, he has brought his family to America to build a new life. Despite a pretense of continu...( read more  read more... )ed affluence, he is barely making ends meet until he sees his opportunity in the auction of a house being sold for back taxes. It is a terrible mistake. Through a bureaucratic snafu, the house had been improperly seized from its rightful owner, Kathy Lazaro, a self-destructive alcoholic. The loss of her home tears away Kathy's last hope of a stable life--a life that had been nearly destroyed by addiction--and Kathy decides to fight to recover her home at any cost. Her struggle is joined by deputy sheriff Lester Burdon, who tries to take the law into his own hands to help Kathy. Ultimately the tale, itself, explores what happens when the American Dream goes terribly awry.

Id: 10894977

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House of Sand and Fog Recent Reviews
  • KellBell184
    May 20, 2009
    KellBell184
    Tragic, profound, and incredibly moving. Engrossing and terrifying all at the same time. Definitely forces you to think and feel--which is all a filmmaker can try for.
  • EarthlyAlien
    March 20, 2009
    EarthlyAlien
    Esmail: "Why did that man say we would be deported?
    Behrani: I do not know. But we are American citizens. We own this house. They can do nothing to us now.
    Esmail: I feel bad for that lady, bawbaw-jahn.
    Behrani: The woman's house was taken from her because...( read more) she did not pay her taxes. That happens when one is not responsible.
    Esmail: [interjects in Persian]
    Behrani: Do you understand? Do not feel bad. Americans, they do not deserve what they have. They have the eyes of small children who are forever looking for the next source of distraction, entertainment, sweet taste in the mouth. We are not like them. We know rich opportunities when we see them and do not throw away God's blessing."

    Photobucket

    Once upon a time, bad times in the US' national pride meant good times cinematically (see: umbilical linkage between Great Depression and screwball comedy and between Vietnam and the rebirth of the War genre). But then, some of the darkest American films were made in the dark Nixonian days of the early '70s. The economically heady, good-time Clinton era was a bacchanalia of happy endings. Then the 21st century came along, and Bush was elected president.

    In a time, it seems, in which films reflect rather than react to the mood of their audience - which seems a far healthier thing for that audience, and for the films, than trying to torture every possible ending into something that won't give sleepless nights to the marketing department of a given major studio.

    Tragedy, after all, has been around since Sophocles (OK, Genesis); Shakespeare has had a pretty good run with it, too. And that's because great tragedy exalts us, ultimately: In its height and breadth and depth of emotion, it portrays life as the profound thing it always ought to be. And in its richness of feeling, there is joy and self-validation - because, let's face it, only a thinking, astute and sensitive human could appreciate what tragedy has to tell him/her.

    Finding beauty in tragedy is something not all human beings are capable of. In fact, I'm not sure those who can are very "good" humans. How can we look at a mother crying over her dead child or dog and find it "beautiful"? Tragedy is supposed to make us cry. But what about those of us to whom tears don't come easily? What kind of response are we suppose to have when tragedy unfolds in front of our eyes? Silence? Admiration? Shock? I've seen some of the most sad films made in history... and they got to me, they made my heart race, but they didn't make me cry. House of Sand and Fog did, and that's the greatest compliment I can give it. It's a tragic, sad, ridiculously somber film and yet, it never ceases being anything but beautiful. Through its tragic story line - tragic in the true, hubris- loaded, Grecian sense - it might even provoke its audience into a reassessment of what it means to live in that country, and what that country means.

    Based on the Oprah's Book Club-anointed novel by Andre Dubus III, House of Sand and Fog stars Jennifer Connelly as Kathy Nicolo, a recovering alcoholic whose husband has left her and who has stopped opening her mail - wherein lies a notice that the county is seizing her property for unpaid taxes. That Kathy doesn't owe the taxes doesn't stop the auctioning of her home, which she inherited from her late father. And it doesn't stop its purchase by Massoud Amir Behrani (Ben Kingsley), an Iranian emigrant, ex-Shah-era air force colonel who's been reduced to working road construction and putting up a false economic front, and sees the undervalued house as his tow-hitch to the American Dream.

    We more or less expect the kind of personality-inhabiting, precisely accented performance delivered here by Kingsley; his Behrani is a staunchly military mess, whose doubts about his own character (he's married off a daughter by feigning wealth) reflect those about his new country ("Americans don't deserve what they have," etc. etc.). But Connelly's performance, arguably the tougher of the two, is something of a colossal, unscaled power. Sure, today she's extremely well-thought-of, one of the best actresses of her generation and all that, but, despite her Oscar and other recognition, six years ago she was probably still thought of primarily as a very pretty face. Her work in here, which plenty of other actresses would have hyperbolized to death, is a tour de force of understated regret. It's something to be studied in acting classes in decades to come.

    With terrific supporting performances by the fabulous and veteran Iranian actress Shoreh Aghdashloo (nominated for an Oscar) as Behrani's wife and Jonathan Ahdout (who would play Aghdashloo's son again, in "24"), as the son, and Frances Fisher as Kathy's legal aid lawyer, the film is helmed by a first-time Ukrainian director, Vadim Perelman, who made his reputation in commercials. Perelman also wrote the screenplay (along with a co-writer, Shawn Lawrence Otto), clearly shaped by his own immigrant experience. That, and the stunning cinematography of Roger Deakins, seem to imply that House of Sand and Fog was simply a film meant to be, and, like its source material, meant to be first-rate.

    "Pesaram, she is a bird, a broken one. Your grandfather used to say that a bird which flies into your house is an angel. You must look upon his presence as a blessing."
  • crackingdanio
    August 8, 2008
    crackingdanio
    Extremely powerful drama where the ending leaves you with this terrible knot in the bottom of your stomach, its the only way I can describe it, intense to say the least.
    The two leads; Sir Ben Kingsley and Jennifer Connelly are just exceptional and their performances are beyond w...( read more)ords. Plot wise Connelly is a recovering alcoholic, unable to pay her bills, her house is seized by the county and sold to Kingsley. Expertly ploted and directed, it's a stuggle to actually take side with a character, Connelly or Kingsley? both in essence NEED the house, but who does it rightfully belong to? and theirin lies the beauty of House of Sand and Fog. It can only be described as criminal when such a beautifully scripted and played out piece of art is failing to find an audience when crappy teeny bopper films can reach the masses. 5stars
  • rebvodka042099
    July 11, 2008
    rebvodka042099
    I got so tired in this movie, although I do love both the actors starring.
  • RiderOfTheStorms
    June 23, 2008
    RiderOfTheStorms
    good movie
  • steamroller0072000
    November 21, 2009
    steamroller0072000
    This mystery thriller was well performed by the actors to say the least.
  • se7enthangel
    October 5, 2009
    se7enthangel
    Ben Kingsley is superb in the movie, he dominates the screen as an Iranian colonel trying to maintain order in his life in America. Connelly was pretty impressive too even though I don t quite like her character in this film. Portrayed here as a depressed weakling and I couldnt m...( read more)aster a single shred of sympathy for her, she could have save herself a whole load of trouble if she had bothered to open her mails. . The story is sad and poignant, a tragedy of shattered dreams.
  • ElCochran90
    September 18, 2009
    ElCochran90
    Amazing contemporary drama and very well executed. Depressing, engaging and powerful, but in some aspects, very true.

    74/100
  • samithehunk
    August 29, 2009
    samithehunk
    Beautiful. There are few films that depend so much on acting as HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG does. It Made me think. whats important and whats not. we need to realize that before its too late.
  • bradsteph
    August 26, 2009
    bradsteph
    A poignant, sad movie that can pull you in different ways. A man that just wants to keep his house.... Good acting all round.
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