House of Sand and Fog (2003)

                       HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG
                (a film review by Mark R. Leeper)

     CAPSULE: What is probably the best-written film of
     the year functions as a thriller and as a human
     drama.  Two people from different backgrounds
     struggle for ownership of the same house.  This is
     a gripping film that works both as a thriller and
     as a human drama, not an easy combination.  Rating:
     +3 (-4 to +4) or 9/10

I knew immediately from the trailer that I wanted to see this film. That is because I got through the trailer and was not sure who the good guy was, or even if there was a good guy in this story. Both characters seemed to have some right on their side. That is very unusual in films. In the film A FEW GOOD MEN you have two characters conflicting and either one could be right. But Tom Cruise is young and earnest and Jack Nicholson is older, smokes cigars, and is sexist. None of these faults are germane to the conflict, but it is clear the filmmaker is telling you with whom to sympathize. HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG is about a conflict between two people, each of whom is arguably in the right. Each desperately needs to own the same house.

Kathy Nicolo (played by Jennifer Connelly)--sober for three years, well, sort of--is the kind of person who just wants to wallow in her depression and to avoid the complexities of life. Professionally she is a housecleaner, but she makes very little effort to maintain her own house, which is much in need of a good cleaning. She lies to her family so they don't find out her husband has left her. She just ignores her mail letting it accumulate unopened on the floor of her house much like the pile of dirty dishes collects in her sink. A misunderstanding over taxes that she has ignored for months comes back to bite her in a big way. The county seizes her house and puts it up for auction. This house was left to her and her brother by her father and she desperately needs to get it back as the last part of her life that she has not screwed up. If she loses the house she has lost everything. One has a natural sympathy for Kathy and her situation, but one also feels that her problems are really in large part of her own making. If anything our sympathy for her is a guilty emotion.

The house has been purchased at auction at a bargain price, a quarter of its market value, by Massoud Amir Behrani (Ben Kingsley). Behrani was once a colonel in the Shah of Iran's army. When the Shah fell he had to flee his country and his whole family will be murdered if he ever returns. In the US he was never successful. Unknown to his family the best he could do for a career is work on a road crew during the day and work at a clerk at a convenience store at night. His wife, Nadi (Shohreh Aghdashloo), stingingly upbraids him for not providing the kind of luxury they had in Iran. But finally Providence has smiled on him. He has bought a house at auction and he can parlay the difference between its cost and its market value into a comfortable life for Nadi and an education for his beloved son, Esmail (Jonathan Ahdout).

The two principal characters seem to be opposites. One is a young, attractive female and the other is a wizened old military man. Nicolo is sloppy and casual. Behrani meticulous and is wound as tight as a spring, covering his desperation with a painful formality. Yet they have a lot in common. Each is trying desperately to keep up appearances so that his/her family does not learn what their situation really is. Each urgently needs ownership of the house to recapture a piece of a better past that is now forever beyond reach. The self-respect of each is tied up in the same house. Upsetting the balance is a Lester Burdon (Ron Eldard), a policeman who takes an interest in Nicolo that begins benignly, but which will not remain so. Burdon wants Nicolo to be dependent on him and slyly tempts her into a position where she will be. Nicolo is happy to comply. The writing by Russian-born writer/director Vadim Perelman is compelling. There are at least three very well developed characters with powerful performances by Connelly, Kingsley, and particularly Aghdashloo. The latter does say much in the film, some minimal English and some Farsi, but she is a strong dramatic presence.

It is a rare film that functions well both as a moving personal drama and as a crime thriller. It has a finely crafted screenplay of with genuine complexity and many ideas inherent. In the end it is a film about conflict among people we come to like. We want them all to work their problems out, yet from the very first scene we know they will not.

What perhaps appeared at first to be a mundane thriller is a strong dramatic film. I rate HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG a +3 on the -4 to +4 scale or 9/10.

                                        Mark R. Leeper
                                        mleeper@optonline.net
                                        Copyright 2004 Mark R. Leeper

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X-RAMR-ID: 36704
X-Language: en
X-RT-ReviewID: 1235213
X-RT-TitleID: 1128304
X-RT-AuthorID: 1309
X-RT-RatingText: 9/10