House of Sand and Fog (2003)

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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