Review: House of Sand and Fog (****)

HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG
A film review by Steve Rhodes

Copyright 2003 Steve Rhodes

RATING (0 TO ****): ****


It's a simple story, really, about nothing more than the disputed ownership
of a small house. But HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG, Dreamworks' big Oscar
contender, is a film so powerful and devastating that watching it is likely
to invoke the same emotions as attending the funeral of a loved one. It is
easily one of the very best films of this or any year.



In three memorable and Oscar worthy performances: Jennifer Connelly plays
Kathy Nicolo, an ex-addict and the original owner of the house in question,
Ben Kingsley plays Colonel Behrani, an ex-officer under the Shah of Iran,
and Shohreh Aghdashloo plays Naderah, his gracious and loving wife. The
Behranis, now American citizens, are the new owners of the house after the
Colonel bought it at auction. Had it not been for a mistake about a $500
business tax bill that Kathy never owed and had Kathy not been so out of it
emotionally that she stopped opening her mail, her house would have never
been taken from her. After her husband left, she turned into an emotional
wreck. She figures -- wrongly of course -- that a lawyer can easily get her
house back. Along the way, she falls for a married deputy sheriff named
Lester Burdon (Ron Eldard), who is creepily helpful and more than willing to
bend the law to threaten the Behranis with deportation if they don't return
the house to its last owner.



The other and even more compelling story is that of the Behrani family. The
father works two menial jobs, a hard labor day job in highway maintenance
and a mindless evening one as a clerk at a convenience store. In-between,
he's like Clark Kent changing his uniforms, not for a cape, but for a
businessman's crisp new suit. To keep up appearances with his friends in
order to arrange for the best marriage possible for his daughter, he
pretends to be a successful business executive. In addition to the cost of
the wedding, the family is saving for an expensive college education for
their teenage son. Living beyond their means, even with his two jobs, the
Colonel sees their salvation in his scheme to buy distressed properties and
turn them around for a quick profit. Kathy's house is the first one in his
new plan.



All of the characters are complex, sympathetic and completely genuine.
Vadim Perelman, in his directorial debut, crafts a movie that packs such an
emotional wallop that you'll spend a good part of the last act crying while
thinking to yourself, "Please God, no!" But there isn't a single
manipulative or wasted moment in the film. Watching it is a tender and
touching experience, and the best part of the picture is its lack of an
awkwardly stuck on Hollywood ending. Rarely has a movie been this gripping.
I've seen it twice now. It was great the first time, and it somehow managed
to be even better the second.



HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG runs 2:06. It is rated R for "some
violence/disturbing images, language and a scene of sexuality" and would be
acceptable for teenagers.



The film opens in very limited release in the United States on Friday,
December 19, 2003. It opens nationwide in January of next year.



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