House of Sand and Fog (2003)

HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG (2003)

3.5/5 stars.

Date of Review: April 21st, 2004

REVIEW BY JOHN ULMER (Copyright, 2004)

"House and Sand of Fog" is a beautifully constructed, wonderful movie to look at -- but little else. Its surface is that of a misty river: elegant, mysterious, and perhaps deceivingly shallow. Based upon the novel by Andre Dubus II, it's a film that never takes sides with either of its lead characters, which is frustratingly difficult given the circumstances. As a film, "House of Sand and Fog" works, and has "epic" written all over it, complete with an attractive score and powerful performances. But something underneath the surface seems to be lacking. How unfortunate for a movie that yearns to be the next "American Beauty."

Kathy Nicolo (Jennifer Connelly) is a single young woman living in a relatively small California home. She is taxed for a mistaken business fee that she assumes has been taken care of -- so you can imagine her immense surprise when she wakes up one morning to find the IRS re-attaining her home and all her belongings.

Kathy takes the matter to a lawyer who promises to represent her --but by the time they try to make an effort to make the case public, the house has been auctioned off to Colonel Massoud Amir Behrani (Ben Kingsley), a Middle-Eastern man who has moved from his repressed country to the freedom of America, intent on providing his family (a wife and two children) with a better life. He plans to purchase Kathy's home, sell it at four times the bargain price he paid for it, and move on. He maintains a job as a construction worker at day and a gas station attendant at night, and is quite eager to gain the respect of his family once again.

Kathy confronts Massoud about her home, telling the truth; confessing that she was unjustly evicted and still legally has the right to live in her home. Massoud does not care. "Why should I be burdened with the incompetence of your town?" he asks, posting a "for sale by owner" sign at the edge of the driveway. The home was passed on to Kathy by her father, who spent thirty years of his life trying to pay off his debts to gain legal ownership of it. She begs Massoud to reconsider, but he ignores her pleads.

The story essentially goes nowhere from here. A pretty thin plot is stretched out far too long -- the film manages to remain strikingly engaging, which is what makes me feel content on giving it a recommendation. But had lesser performers and a weaker director helmed this project, I fear it would bear an uncanny resemblance to other legal dispute films regarding homes, including "The War of the Roses" (about two divorcing couples who battle over what belongs to who) and even "Pacific Heights" (about a sadistic tenant who moves into an apartment, tears it apart, and tries to make a living hell for the owners to put some extra cash in his wallet).

Had more time been spent on actually gaining our approval of these characters, and more unnecessary scenes been cut from the film, I think it would have worked much smoother. It's a rather manipulative, almost schmaltzy movie -- the plot is somewhat silly to begin with. One critic notes that the screening was filled with laughter during the plot unraveling. I find this somewhat hard to believe but consider it an exaggeration of a literal truth -- it is indeed a paper-thin notion to carry an entire movie along. "House of Sand and Fog" doesn't know whether to be an engrossing character study of morals and sin, or whether to be a long debate on legal ownership. I prefer the former but it isn't executed as well as I had hoped.

There's another problem with the end. I'm a big fan of films that present us with "clean" characters and we witness their gradual evolutionary spiralling downfall into the chasms of sin and chaos. Take "Fargo" or "A Simple Plan" or even "Bound" for instance -- the characters figure that their plans will all be simple. Macy thinks the kidnapping will be a way of gaining a few easy bucks without any hassles, Paxton and co. think that keeping the money will never hurt anyone, and the two lesbians from "Bound" think they can ripp off a Mobster without getting their comeuppance. Uh-uh.

But the downfall of "House and Sand and Fog," without ruining anything at all, is absolutely downright wholly unbelievable. One thing escalates into another thing and soon we're rolling our eyes in disbelief. It's just too "Hollywood" -- very overly dramatic and stylized and proverbial and cliched and so on and so forth. It's insistingly yearning to be a great epic but falls short, especially towards the climax. And the last word of the movie had people booing.

And yet I found myself absorbed in this movie. "House of Sand and Fog" was nominated for a few Oscars, all based on performances alone, which I do not find hard to believe. I would find it hard to believe if this movie was nominated for anything else, save perhaps cinematography --I've seen better films of 2003 with better direction and much better storylines. I recommend this movie but only as one to approach with caution -- I guarantee you'll either love or hate it, and you'll probably have some mixed feelings after it's over. The film keeps you thinking afterwards but not in a very good way.

- John Ulmer

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X-Language: en
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X-RT-TitleID: 1128304
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X-RT-RatingText: 3.5/5