House of Sand and Fog (2003)

House of Sand and Fog

Matinee

Nothing says Holiday Movie like Ben and Jen. Not the Ben and Jen you are thinking of, but two Oscar contenders portrayng the struggles of desperate people to overcome their own limitations and setbacks and retain that for which they have fought so hard. Kathy Lazaro (Jennifer Connelly) has nothing left but her house, and then it is gone; sold to Massoud Amir Behrani (Ben Kingsley) through a problematic bureaucratic nightmare. And that's the most upbeat part of the movie.

Much has been written about these two actors' work in this film, and yet coming out of the critical shadows is Shohreh Aghdashloo, playing Kingsley's wife, a role which is more complicated and subtle than the relatively single-minded focus exhibited by Kathy and Massoud. Aghdashloo creates a triangle from the unresolvable tension line formed by the desire, the need, for this house. She is gracious, understanding, caring, and in as much need for the house as her husband. What's so special about the house? You will have to see it to understand the full extent of how a coastal dwelling can represent stability, recovery, and a new life for whomever resides in it.

Enter Ron Eldard as an enabler, a helper, and an unwitting sabotager, and this intimate cast of characters makes a soup from which real drama is born. The story is engaging and hopeless at the same time - to maintain your interest when everyone seems to be doomed on some level is an achievement and a half. Adapted from Andre Dubus III's novel of the same name by first time director Vadim Perelman, House of Sand and Fog is a mature, well-crafted drama, with a slow, painful build. It doesn't hurt that Perelman had master cinematographer Roger Deakins on board, and the subtle hand of James Horner on the music.

Not having read the novel, I was forced to infer some information about the characters' stories that brought them to such desperate ends; I assume the book is more illustrative. I bring that up only because the production design and the expositional scenes are so rich with content that, not knowing the novel's truth, I still feel I can extrapolate something close to it thanks to the work of Maia Javan, Drew Boughton, and Gene Servena. Despite feeling that the movie was superbly crafted and beautifully acted, I still can "only" give it a Matinee rating because when all is said and done, I didn't feel that the story ended up anywhere, or that the characters grew or changed in any way. This is not to say that the ending felt false, it just felt more tragic and then it's done. But the work here is very good, check it out.

-- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ These reviews (c) 2003-2004 Karina Montgomery. Please feel free to forward but credit the reviewer in the text. Thanks. You can check out previous reviews at: http://www.cinerina.com and http://ofcs.rottentomatoes.com - the Online Film Critics Society http://www.hsbr.net/reviews/karina/listing.hsbr - Hollywood Stock Exchange Brokerage Resource

==========
X-RAMR-ID: 36757
X-Language: en
X-RT-ReviewID: 1237803
X-RT-TitleID: 1128304
X-RT-SourceID: 755
X-RT-AuthorID: 3661
X-RT-RatingText: 4/5