House of Sand and Fog
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Movie Reviews of House of Sand and Fog
Movie Review: House of Sand and Fog
Summary: 5 Stars
House of Sand of Fog is the movie based on the novel by Andre Dubus.
Ms. Kathy (Jennifer Connelly )has just been wrongly evicted from her house, she is coming of a serious drought of depression after the death of her father and worse yet shes realized that , the new owner of her house has just bought for half it's price and wants to use the house for profit only. Ms. Kathy is in quite a pickle and during the course of the movie we see a battle of wills. One person clearly has an idea of family values while another has none.
The new owner is a man by the name of Mr. Colonel Behrani (Ben Kingsley) from Iran who doesn't do things the American or the British way. Mr. Behrani is an example of the old ways in third world countries where women have no equal rights and the male dictates everything.
Obviously not only a clash of wills, but culture will seek to destroy Mr. Behrani and Ms. Kathy in the course of their battle one person will be the winner , the other the loser. One person will play by the rules and another will break it. What House of Sand Fog teaches us is that life isn't fair and it seems like it's the bad people who win and the good people who get hurt. It also teaches that we need to have new laws so people who abuse their power can be held accountable for their actions or else people get hurt.
That is the story for House of Sand and Fog, an intense battle of wills between two parties all trying to catch their piece of the so called American Dream, though you can apply this to everyone, everyone who has a dream and wants to get it. Of course the big difference here is that some people aren't willing to work hard and sacrifice, others want to get to the top without working for it. Thats a big slice of the controversy for the movie at least the way othes have spoken about it.
Some people made a big deal out of the race issue in the movie, it's not so much a battle of race as it is of values and morals.
When Ms. Kathy is evicted to her house, she is helped by one of the deputies on the scene, Lester (Ron Eldard) someone said he is a psycho he is not, he's actually the one that helps Kathy since we learn that Kathy and her mother have a long feud together.
For the Behrani story, we learn that Behrani was a big important man in Iran, being a colonel, however of course he has a culture shock when he goes to America and learns that all his military experience doesn't mean anything. In America, as the belief in the American dream goes, one has to work to achieve their dreams. Behrani at the beginning seems up to the task, he starts of in construction work, yet it seems
he cant cut it.
On the ridiculous side as well, the Behrani family live in a luxurious apartment in California, yet by all reasoning none of them can afford the rent. Behrani and his wife have a fight, and as spoiled as she is, she still wants more. Behrani admits he cant support their current lifestyle, and he doesn't like working for a living so he comes up with a scheme to steal other people's home and move from one place to next, selling each house for a profit, so they can continue their unaffordable lifestyle.
When Behrani learns of Kathy's house being up for auction, he buys for a cheap five hundred dollars, and then has the nerve to put up the house for nearly ten times that.
Of course Kathy will have none of this and she contacts her lawyers and see what ways she can curtail her house from being sold. Kathy seems to be on the losing end as far as the courts go, because it seems that Kathy didnt pay proper payments for her house, and even though Mr. Behrani is obviously abusing his power it looks like he is in the right. From then on, obviously Kathy plans to make this personal and sees
if there's any ways to get her livelihood, her house back.
House of Sand and Fog was nominated for several awards including Best Actor.
What makes House of Sand and Fog such a special movie is that it's entirely built on emotion and will. The acting from everyone on the movie is nothing short of excellent. Ben Kingsley is absolutely scary as this Behrani person , it seems he will stop at nothing to get what he wants. Connelly's character as Kathy is shy
, and innocent, but we see her come out of her shell and she realizes, her life, her house is on the line here.
Director Vadim Perelman in his debut, presents us with an overwhelming powerful film. He doesn't come out and say whose right or wrong here, but if you watch the film several times, you will see for yourself that Vadim leaves behind enough clues, so a person can see his major themes in the movie.
Vadim is commenting on several issues, the fighter over wealth and property and of course values, and morals.
Vadim is actually from the Ukraine, but his attempt in my views in his commentary on not just how unfair the goal is of living the American dream but in achieving your goals in any country, the Uk , the Ukraine, anywhere.
He shows that sometimes it's the bully, the monster, who achieves his wealth and dream of course at the price of someone else's misfortune.
This a exceptionally, harrowing film, I really recommend every person on Ciao to see this film.
Movie Review: If you like drama, this is where it's at!
Summary: 5 Stars
I kept hearing about this film from family and friends, on and on for a few months now, so I finally decided to sit down and watch it. Boy, was I surprised.
At the start of the film we meet Cathy (Jennifer Connelly), who is obviously a depressed individual. She receives a phonecall from her mother, who, like typical moms, wants to know if everything is OK. Cathy says everything is fine, it's early, she's tired, yada yada, and when asked how "Nick" is, Cathy says he's right next to her, he's fine and hangs up. The only problem with that statement is that Cathy is alone in the bed and now we know she's lied, but the question is, why?
From the second that Cathy gets out of the bed until the very end, we see a lonely shell of a woman whose depression has caused her to lose the very thing she needed to concentrate on most: her pride.
Cathy hasn't opened her mail for months, if that. It's obvious that something has happened to this "Nick" person and then there's a knock at the door and her entire world comes crashing down around her. She's being evicted for failure to pay back taxes on a business she claims she doesn't have. Even that is a lie because she does, technically, own a business. She does housecleaning and that, as far as the county is concerned, is a business but the movie doesn't flesh that out too much.
All we know is that Cathy appears unemployed and is a seemingly innocent victim who has been unfairly penalized by a county government and miles of red tape. We come to find out, however, that all of the unfortunate circumstances that Cathy is about to find herself in could've been avoided had she just opened her mail.
In helping her vacate the premises, the local Deputy Sherriff, takes an interest in Cathy and her welfare. He arranges for a moving company to come to help her get out and consistently checks up on her. She's grateful for the attention and goodwill but is becoming increasingly unhinged at the thought of losing a house that belonged to her family for so long.
Then the house goes up for auction and an Iranian family moves in. In this part of the story, we meet Massoud (Ben Kingsley) who, out of sheer necessity due to the Shah's death, has moved his family to the US just to survive. Unfortunately, Massoud, a former Irani colonel, is used to living a life of luxury in Iran that he's going to go for broke to get in the US. He is working two, perhaps three, jobs just to make ends meet and lying to his extended family by appearing to work in some upper class job. We don't know what that job may be but we see that by the end of the day as a construction worker, he visits a parking garage bathroom to wash up and change into a suit before going home.
There are a lot of parallels between Cathy and Massoud. She's upset she lost the house she grew up in for basically failing to open her mail, and Massoud is upset he lost his house in Iran where his children grew up and has failed to provide what he may feel is a proper life for them in the US. Where one has forgotten her pride, the other has a great deal of it and will do anything to uphold it.
The entire story centers on Cathy trying to get her house back from the county that, she feels, unjustly sold. Massoud, in the meantime, purchased the house for a fraction of what's it worth and is looking to turn it around for a profit so he can pay off the staggering debt he's acquired while living in the US and to send his son to college. Both of their respective families are unaware of what's really going on.
Cathy's family believes she's still in the house her father purchased for them so many years before and Massoud's family believes the house is just an investment property before they are to move to more upscale digs.
Complications arise when Cathy repeatedly confronts Massoud and his wife. The Sherriff's Deputy is added to the mix because in checking up on Cathy, he comes to find out that she is desperate to regain ownership of her house and he decides to throw his weight around with Massoud to see if he'll convince him to sell it back to the county.
In one bad choice after another, the story finally comes to a shocking conclusion. In trying to get her house back, Cathy never realized that her behavior, although justified in her opinion, could have such dreadful consequences.
Not only does she ruin the Deputy's life, but she manages to destroy Massoud's as well and at the end, when she's sitting there alone, smoking a cigarette and reflecting on the events that led her up to that point in time, she's asked a question that, until then, had never given her any pause.
She's asked "Is this your house?"
And for once in her life that we've only been shown a surprisingly short amount of, Cathy tells the truth.
The moral of this story, at least for me, is, to take pride in and cherish what you have because you never know when the things you love the most will be taken away from you.
And sometimes, the things you love the most aren't material possesions but your sense of self respect, your pride, and your ability to be responsible even when faced with remarkable difficulty and despair.
Movie Review: Excellent Adapted Drama
Summary: 5 Stars
A great drama that just missed the Oscar, "House of Sand and Fog" comes from the 1999 novel of the same name by Andre Dubus III, once a finalist for the National Book Award and making Oprah's prestigious book club list. It tells the resonating tale of two people battling over what appears to the reader to be a trifle of a house, but is the definition of the American dream to them and the price they both pay for their selfishness.
Jennifer Connelly is Kathy Nicolo, a hard-luck house cleaner who is a recovering alcoholic/drug user. She wakes up one morning to find the county clerk's office knocking on her door and when she opens it, a man in a suit walks right in, slapping an eviction notice on her door. He notifies her that her house is up for public auction the very next day and she must vacate the premises immediately. Kathy stands there dazed, cloaked only in a t-shirt and robe that reaches down to her knees. A young police officer named Lester Burdon (Eldard) files in after the suit-and-tie bully, his expression and demeanor largely sympathetic. He introduces himself and offers to not only help her pack her things but to find her a place to stay as well. Her acceptance of his offer is the beginnings of an illicit affair despite the fact that Lester is married with two young children.
As Kathy confers with her lawyer Connie Walsh (Fisher) and fights to get her house back over a discrepancy regarding a business tax, an Iranian named Massoud Behrani (Kingsley) spots the add for the auction in the newspaper and decides to buy the house at its severely reduced price, renovate it and then resell it at its true value in order to turn a profit for a better house. The marrying off of his daughter Soraya (Rawat) has reduced his financial burden but has also in turn drained his pockets and his wife Nadi (Aghdashloo) and son Esmail (Ahdout) are sustained by his two demeaning jobs. Ashamed to admit his real sources of income, Behrani changes into a suit and tie before walking into the apartment in the evenings, working countless hours as both as a trash collector (a grueling job for a man his age) and a convenience store clerk.
The house seems to be Behrani's salvation and they move in quickly, Nadi at first resistant to the move, claiming she doesn't want to live like a gypsy. The real gypsy lifestyle, however, is owned by Kathy, who goes from a cheap motel to sleeping in her car after her credit card is denied twice. Unable to part with her home, she consistently shows up there and beseeches Behrani to find another house because hers was sold by mistake despite the legitimacy of the sale. When she refuses his offer to buy it back from him for its real value, he brusquely escorts her off the property, bruising her inner arm in the process. Lester keeps checking up on her and motivated by his feelings for her, offers to help Kathy in her crusade to get her house back. His aid ends up being the unconscionable harrassment and intimidation of the Behrani family, particularly after seeing Kathy's bruises.
The battle between the two parties continues to escalate and culminates with both Kathy and Lester doing the unthinkable, both of their actions leading to a highly tragic ending that no one could predict.
All the actors here give brilliant performances, Connelly and Kingsley in particular. Kingsley gives another upstanding portrayal (when has he not, really?) as Behrani, the patriarch of his formerly affluent family now scraping to sustain a small semblance of the opulent lifestyle in America that they once knew in Iran. He is cool-headed, compassionate and hard-working, never overlooking an opportunity to make things better for his family - they are his duty, his life, his one and only love. Connelly is superb as Kathy, a woman heavily dwelling upon past mistakes as she fights to gain back the one true symbol of her waning prosperity. The bungalow becomes the stubborn passion of both and in their battle to keep it, they lose sight of what is really important. It is only when they chance to see each other's pain that they develop a mutual empathy, but by then it is too late - their fates are irrevocably sealed.
The score by James Horner (Titanic, Braveheart) is subtle and morose, unobtrusive and evoking just the right amount of melancholy. Fledgling Ukrainian director Vadim Perelman handles Dubus's novel with grace and poetry and neophyte screenwriter Shawn Lawrence Otto follows the story closely, making it one of the better book-to-film adaptations out there.
Bottom line: A heartachingly beautiful drama, "House of Sand and Fog" was nominated for three Oscars in 2004 (Best Actor for Kingsley, Best Supporting Actress for Aghdashloo, Best Original Score for Horner) but failed to pick up any trophies and it's baffling, as is no nomination whatsoever for the moving performance by Jennifer Connelly. But sometimes the best movies out there are the ones who take second place when they should've been in first. This film is gold, whether the Academy says so or not.
Movie Review: a genuine work of art
Summary: 5 Stars
"The House of Sand and Fog," easily one of the best movies of 2003, is a haunting and hypnotic tale about how even good, well-intentioned people - through lack of empathy and apparently harmless self interest - can end up hurting others and even themselves without meaning to do so. It is also about how the most seemingly insignificant events in life can lead to unimaginable tragedies.Based on the novel by Andre Dubus III, "The House of Sand and Fog" stars Jennifer Connelly as Kathy, a young woman battling depression after her husband ran out on her eight months earlier. One morning, already in the depths of despair, Kathy is informed that she is being evicted from her house for nonpayment of a business tax that she rightfully claims she doesn't owe. Before the county can rectify the error, it has already placed the house up for auction. Ben Kingsley plays Behrani, the man who buys the home unaware of its embattled history. Behrani was a colonel in pre-Khomeini Iran, forced to flee that country with his wife and children when the Shah fell from power. Now an American citizen, Behrani labors at two low paying jobs to keep his family living as much as possible in the style to which they were accustomed back home. When Karen's repossessed home goes on the market at a bargain basement rate, Behrani purchases it, hoping to move his family there temporarily, then sell it at market value and move to an even better place. Thus begins the bizarre conflict between two well meaning but stubborn people, both of whom have a stake in the situation, both of whom are equally victims of the system, and both of whom are determined to come out the winner in this contest of wills.
Besides having the most interesting storyline of any movie of recent times, "The House of Sand and Fog" also boasts some of the most interesting characters as well. Kathy is a beautiful woman who wants desperately to lead a healthy, normal life - she has been working to overcome her addiction to both cigarettes and alcohol - but the fates have simply not been very kind to her of late. When she realizes that she has become the victim of a bureaucratic bungling, she knows that she must make a stand and fight, fully aware that the people with whom she is contending are as blameless as she is. In a similar way, Behrani means no harm to anyone, yet he realizes that he too is not to blame for what has happened and resents being made to feel guilty because he is legally trying to make money to ensure a better life for his wife and son. He also knows that, as an immigrant of Middle Eastern descent, he faces a higher hurdle to mount than white people who were born in this country. The screenplay does a fine job underlining this subtle attitude of racism, particularly in the third main character, Lester, a sheriff's deputy who comes to care for Karen and who is willing to bend the law some and risk his own career to help her out. Lester, like the other characters, is also willing to hurt others to ensure his own happiness, even abandoning his wife and two young children to start life anew with Karen.
In addition to Connelly and Kingsley, there are superb performances by Ron Eldard as Lester, Jonathan Ahdout as Behrani's teenaged son, and Shohren Aghdashloo as Behrani's wife who is caught between her own strong-willed nature and the traditional role of subservient wife she knows she must play. Aghdashloo provides some of the movie's most emotionally complex moments and scenes, as she struggles to understand both the events that are taking place around her and what those events say about the character of the man who is her husband.
Moreover, "The House of Sand and Fog" is a beautifully written and directed film. Writer/director Vadim Perelman establishes a lyrical, hypnotic tone through a camera that seems to be forever gliding through and around the scene of action. The film is so confidently paced and structured that the two main combatants in the story - Karen and Behrani - do not even meet until almost an entire hour of the film has elapsed. Perelman spends the first sections of the film sketching in the details of the main characters' lives, in order for us to better understand where they are coming from and what it is they want. It would be so easy in a story like this one to pigeonhole one character as a hero and another as a villain, but the point of the story is that these are just ordinary people who don't want to hurt others but who end up doing so just the same.
If the movie becomes a bit more melodramatic in the closing stretches than perhaps is warranted - striving for Shakespearean-type tragedy when a simpler resolution might have sufficed - at least it's TRYING to accomplish something meaningful, which is more than can be said for the vast majority of films these days. "The House of Sand and Fog" may not be a perfect film, but it comes damn near close. At the very least, it is a totally mesmerizing experience that is impossible to forget.
Movie Review: I rate this film a "MUST SEE!"
Summary: 5 Stars
There are major issues in the story-line I don't agree with, am not sure if these are due to Andre Dubus' (the novelist) concepts (I've not read the novel but am ordering it now, online), or have the screen-writers, due to production needs, taken a short-cut and thus harmed the Jennifer Connelly (beautiful Kathy Nicolo, a deeply depressed alcoholic unable to function in the real world) and Ben Kingsley (Massoud Amir Behrani, former Air Force colonel in the Iranian military under the Shah), characters... but more about this, later. Oh, I better pause for a minute and pay homage to actress Shohreh Aghdashloo, who turns in an excellent performance as the Colonel's warm-hearted and genteel, Iranian wife.
Briefly: Dubus tells this riveting tale from the divergent viewpoints of the two adversaries, portrayed by "Behrani" and "Kathy." To each of them, the house means more than a conventional roof over their heads. For the colonel, it's his way out from his financial troubles, make a quick substantial profit by buying something cheaply and sell it dearly; but for Kathy, a reminder of a sunnier past.
Despite some of my disagreements, fact is, HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG is a "MUST SEE" cautionary tale for several reasons. Especially if the authorities come after you claiming you owe taxes you DO NOT OWE (especially if you are a home owner, and even more especially if you own your home free and clear, which makes it a pure, ready-to-be-picked asset they can grasp away from you in one fell swoop), and you reply to them explaining your stand .... don't you ever be such a fool as to ignore their follow-up letters! No matter how down and under you are, no matter if your husband has left you and you are in the belly of the beast grappling with alcoholism and depression... DO NOT IGNORE THE GOVERNMENT (State or Federal) if it, rightly or wrongly, decides you owe taxes!
The house that is the center of this unfolding drama, is a modest, aging bungalow on a hilltop with a breathtaking view (superb cinematography!). Kathy has inherited this house from her father, along with her brother. Also, it's her safe haven on the turbulent sea of her life. She is battling alcoholism and depression on her own, without going around sharing her problems. Her husband has left her, and she has not told anyone, not even her mother or brother.
Then one morning she steps out of the shower to answer a knock on her door, cloaked in nothing but sleepy eyes and a bath robe, and her already precarious mental existence comes crashing down around her. Within hours she is evicted from her house which is to be auctioned the very next day in a county tax sale. Yes the authorities are not justified because she has proven to them that she does not owe the tax. Alas, though, she has done wrong, too: she's taken it for granted that her reply to them was read and agreed upon....
At first, she seems to have found a guardian angel, Deputy Lester Burdon --- a married man with two children. Although clearly taken in by her beauty, he is also a genuinely kind man, he makes her admit the reality of her situation, secures legal counsel for her and helps her find a place to stay, but his faith in the system (and her lawyer's view of her just stand) clash with the will of proud ex-Colonel Behrani (Ben Kingsley) who fled his homeland with his family when the Shah was deposed and who has struggled secretly in San Francisco, performing low-paying, odd and hard jobs (for a man his age and background) to keep up a facade of being well-off until his daughter secures a good marriage. His character is perfectly drawn, an authentic, old-fashioned proud patriarch. He has poured his remaining life savings into buying Kathy's house, at a TREMENDOUS bargain, planning to resell it a substantial mark-up. Thus he refuses to sell it back at the price he bought it for, when Kathy's lawyer informs him the county made a bureaucratic error.
He is not just proud, but too stubborn, until... until he has his moment of epiphany, but ... is it too late? I disagreed yet empathized with his senseless pride and "my way or no way" attitude, all the way through --- after all he is a truthfully designed product of his times and culture, but the character of Kathy angered me a few times. On the one hand, she can't tell the truth to her brother, dissolves in helpless tears during the only phone conversation she has with him (TELL HIM THE TRUTH! I kept screaming, he is the co-owner, he's got a right to know!) yet on the other, she tells her lawyer, who is totally on her side, to go f... herself. Yes, Kathy's character is full of annoying contradictions. So I gotta see who's the culprit here, the novelist or screen-writers. Nevertheless, she is a consummate actress.
And you, dear Reader, will not regret having purchased this DVD.