House of Sand and Fog
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Movie Reviews of House of Sand and Fog
Movie Review: The House of Ruined Dreams
Summary: 5 Stars
Moving, sad and enthralling movie is "The House of Sand and Fog".Andre Dubois wrote the book and received over 100 offers for the movie rights. The movie does the book justice. The photography is
superb and the sand and fog surround the house and the movie. Jennifer Connelly follows up her Academy Award performance in another dark film- she is brilliant and believable. Ben Kingsley as always is so "right on" in his interpretation of his character. He is a fomer military man in the Iraq Army, and is ramrod straight and honest. He does not flinch, not once.
Jennifer Connelly is removed from her family home for not paying a tax that turns out to be a mistake. Jennifer, it sems has given up drinking and is depressed and never opens her mail. Thus she never sees the bill. Once removed from her home, she is befriended by a local policeman who is lonely and feels sorry for her. This develops into a romance- the man is married and has children and all these lives become intertwined with despair and depression.
Into this morass comes Ben Kingsley looking for a home to buy, to repair and sell at a premium. He and his family are living beyond their means- he is working at two jobs to keep up the facade. His plan is to move to the house while they are fixing it up and relieving himself of the stress of the bills and the many hours of work. He finds the ad for this home for sale at a very large discount- buys the home and then all hell breaks loose. The juxtaposition of his family heirlooms, gold and silver and glass in a seaside cottage gives the movie an unearthly feel.
Jennifer and her policeman try to get the home back but their plans fall apart. Jennfier starts to slide down that ugly black hole, and all the lives involved fall apart.
This is a breath-takingly beautiful movie- so well acted it is real. Academy Award performances abound in this movie. This is not a movie for the squeamish- blood and suspense are plentiful. Recommended highly! prisrob
Movie Review: Absorbing existential drama !
Summary: 5 Stars
This film is no more no less a tragedy of wills opressed for a set of pre established rules they just can not overpass .
Kathy Nicolo (Jennifer Connely)is a lonely woman who has not been readapt her new life and face it . Her depression carries her to ignore the world and in that isolation abandons herself in all the aspects . that position will contain precisely the dramatic nervous of the film .
Massoud Amir Behrani is an Iranian Colonel who fled Iran when the ancient Shah governement collapses . In this inmigrant state he really wants to rebuild a new life trying to reproduce with the major fidelity his iranian house . The Caspian will be replaced for the Pacific Ocean . He is linked for his ancient memories his dignity and pride is held even he works in a simple asphalt company . We can watch him dressing elegantly after his job . And the unforgetable wedding of his daughter seems to prove it .
Finally we have to a sympathetic cop really unhappy with a marriage in aparience .
The three axis are described and every one with its inner energy will be trying to conquer new goals , except Conelly who really wants to get what she really left , her home made with sacrifice for her own father .
The love , the pride and the lost status , everyone of them will have its own energy and the unavoidable intersection will spark the tragedy .
Vadim Pederlman debut directorial is simply splendid. His style is very personal and you can notice the influence of Kurosawa (the camera toward the sun in clear hommage to Rashomon) and Tarkovsky (the ode to the nature) in his narrative flow , highlighted by superb backgrounds and outstanding landscapes who work out themselves as smart link sequences .
Kingsley acting is overwhelming and after watching the movie I would really have wished Kingsley and Penn would have shared the expected Academy Award .
It was a question of fairness .
One of the top films in 2003 .
Movie Review: Best Movie I Have Ever Seen
Summary: 5 Stars
This is by far the best movie I ever seen or close to it. I saw it a week ago and it is still on my mind. This is the sadest most tragic film I have ever seen. The acting was so good these were some of the most real seeming characters to ever come across a screen. I have to give especially rave reviews to Ben Kingsley and Jonathan Ahdout. Kingsley who plays Colonel Bahrani gives an exceptional performance as usual paticularly in the tragic end. Jonathan Ahdout who plays the Colonel's teenage son Esmail is the most natural young actor I have ever seen.
The movie as most know is about a house that was lost by recovering addict and classic loser Kathy because she failed to open her mail. The county believed she owed taxes and mistakenly evicted her and auctioned it off to the proud, stubborn, determined Colonel Bahrani an exile from the Shah's Iran whose money is dwindling, wants to return to his old status and be able to pay for his son's college. Bahrani moves in with his spoiled wife Nadi and his kind good natured son Esmail. Kathy hooks up with a policeman named Lester who had to evict her from the house and have what you could call one of the toxic relationships of the ages. Kathy is determined to reclaim the home and Lester joins her crusade.
You will find yourself in the Bahranis corner and paticularly care for Esmail but none of the characters are pure evil though by the end you would not mind seeing Lester's skin layers slowly peeled off one by one. The movie does a good job at showing the humanity of all the characters. It is rare a movie emotionally moves me like this one did. It is a movie that deals with humanity and frailty. It makes on think of how wealth is not the most important thing in life and how what truly matters can be tragically lost. In the end the movie rips your heart out so if depressed one may want to postpone and I am not sure if I would buy the DVD as it is not the type of movie you pop in to relax.
Movie Review: No Words Can Describe
Summary: 5 Stars
I was not so enthusiastic about seeing this movie because of the "curse" that seems to haunt the genre - that being good acting, but a questionable film as a whole ("Monster's Ball," "In the Bedroom," etc...). The fact is that these movies feel like they were created with the soul purpose of winning Oscars thus a lot of the magic falls deaf on the viewer. I approached "House of Sand and Fog" with this same mentality, expecting a good acting job, but a boring film; however, I am happy to report that this stereotype fell flat on its face. I have never read the book and so I did not know what to expect, but what I got was twist after twist that took me on a whirlwind flight of beauty and pain. At first, the movie seemed a little silly (how Jennifer's character behaved was a little over the top and selfish) and boring, but it morphed into a simply magnificent tale of love and loss. The really great thing though was the plot twist that occurred and how the story throws one back and forth (do I love this character or hate him/her). It is not until the end that one can even begin to digest what has happened. Not only was the storyline fantastic, but the acting was phenomenal! Jennifer and Ben were simply fantastic, but the real "show stealer" was newcomer Shohreh Aghdashloo; oh my she was so wonderful and heartbreaking. By the end I can promise that you will cry (at least inside) more than you ever have for a movie; the people seem so real and personal to you (every one of them). I am absolutely appalled that this film did not pick up a single Oscar and very few nominations!
This film is a wonderful Drama and so much more. I have never been so drawn in by a cast and story before. I would recommend this to any "Art" loving individual that appreciates the fragileness of life and the human spirit. I do not usually write long reviews but this film deserves pages and pages of praise. Just watch and you will understand that the hype is well deserved.
Movie Review: Very absorbing tale of conflict
Summary: 5 Stars
The visuals of fog, sunsets, and the ocean lent a sense of mystery and the evanesence of human life that drew me in. I was a lot less concerned about being confused at the disconected opening scenes than intrigued as to how this story was going to come together; and it came together in a riveting way, as a clash between two very different people who insisted above all else that they were entitled to the same thing.
Kathy (Jennifer Connolly) is evicted from her father's house. We never learn a great deal as to why. It could have been a mistake, she considers it a mistake; but regardless of the arbitrary way that she experiences being evicted, we soon learn that though she is beautiful, she is drifting haphazardly through life without a whole lot of purpose, latching onto to whomever fits into her set of rules. Colonel Behrani (Ben Kingsley) is worlds away in experience. Exiled with his family from his homeland in Iraq, he takes a job as a manual laborer and is determined to regain some of the advantages of his former life. Buying Kathy's home and then selling it again at four times the price is his way out of drudgery and difficulty.
The tale may not have gathered it's horrifying momentum were it not for the policeman Lester (Ron Eldard), first appearing at Kathy's eviction from her house. From the way Jennifer Connolly plays her part, it is very convincing how he could fall under her spell, because she has a mesmerizing beauty and her vulnerability only adds to her attractiveness. Lester has a tenuous hold over his life, and dumps his wife and kids and a great deal more and falls head-over-heals for her, in effect losing his bearings.
It is possible to nitpick over details here and there, and whether the ending works or not; but this is a well-acted, very absorbing film about sympathetic characters who have an unresolvable conflict.