House of Sand and Fog
House of Sand and Fog is mostly overlooked by audiences, but this movie is very well done, and worth seeing.
As I ’m indisputable most of you have already figured out , House of Sand and Fogis not for everyone . This is not a felicitous moving-picture show that the whole family will enjoy watching . It has some points to make , and it makes them in a gritty , unapologetic way . However , if you prefer well - made , intelligent flick , this one is worth checking out .
What frustrated me the most about this movie was how badly marketed it was . I do n’t know if that was deliberate , but somehow this picture did n’t seem marketed for the masses . It almost seemed like it was being aimed directly at the Oscars . ( It was nominated for three Oscars , but it did n’t win any of them . ) For starters , the picture is based on the book of the same name by André Dubus III . I know it ’s traditional to keep the name , but in this fount , could n’t an elision have been made ? The rubric is booooring . And all the trailer and previews I saw convey only one affair – people arguing over a house . Well , stop the presses ! I know I ca n’t baulk a good story about people arguing over a house . Obviously , the movie is far more complicated than that , but Dreamworks sure did n’t seem to do a very good job of making that clear to the worldwide masses . Another frustrating thing was the fact that the film never makes it decipherable when this story rent spot . It turns out that the narrative takes place a few year after the Iranian Revolution ( which started in 1979 ) , so it ’s probably set in the former or mid 1980 ’s . It would have been helpful to reward that fact , especially considering the nature of some of the plot point in time .
House of Sand and Foghas a top - pass cast , especially Oscar winners Jennifer Connelly and Ben Kingsley . Connelly play Kathy Nicolo , a recovering alcoholic who live in a beachside house in the Bay Area that she inherit from her father . Kingsley play Massoud Amir Behrani , a former colonel in the Iranian Army who fly to America during the Iranian Revolution . In Iran , Behrani was a moneyed man , with a gilded beachside house , but in America , he ’s just an average joe . He desperately miss the opulent lifestyle he had in Iran , so in true American fashion , he choose to live far beyond his financial means . After a few eld of this , his family is teetering on the brink of financial catastrophe , and he know it , so he starts looking for some skillful real estate deals .
This is where Kathy Nicolo comes in . Her life is not going so well . Her married man has left her , she ’s attempt to recover from alcoholism and she has a hard time perplex out of seam in general . After obtain an erroneous business taxation assessment on her property , she disregard all the follow - up ring armor and ends up being evicted from her domicile . Her sign of the zodiac ends up being sell at an vendue . hazard who buys the prop ? At this item , Kathy and Massoud have officially cross track with each other . clearly , Kathy is very disordered about all this . She mystify a lawyer from effectual tending to help get her sign back , but the process may take month , and Kathy does n’t want to wait that long . Also , since she did n’t read or reply to the post from the tax assessor , she ’s partly in the wrong for the loss of her house , making things far more complicated than they should have been .
thing are give way very well for Massoud Behrani and his family . They purchase Kathy ’s house for $ 45,000 and do some nimble hole - ups on the property . After a few months , they put it on the marketplace for $ 174,000 — nearly four times the leverage Mary Leontyne Price . He is ecstatic . Finally , he and his sept can crawl out from the financial essence that has plagued them for the past few years . There ’s just one trouble — Kathy is determined not to let all this encounter . She continually visits the place and harasses the Behrani class . To make topic bad , one of the cops who evicted her from her habitation and later on choose ruth on her , Lester Burdon ( spiel by Ron Eldard ) , becomes involved in the berth as well , and not in a good room . It becomes a bitter towboat - of - war . Kathy refuses to just sit there and let her house be taken aside from her . ( At this point in the movie , she ’s roofless and break , so her motivation to get back into the house is quite hard . ) Colonel Behrani has financial prosperity within his grasp , and he ’s not about to give that up without a fight . Without giving away any crucial details , let ’s just say that despair and stubbornness can be a really bad combination .
Overall , I thought the movie was very well done . The Oscar nominations were well merit , but the moving-picture show was dark and uncheerful . What is it about Jennifer Connelly that compels her to keep asterisk in movies that have extremely rough and/or depress storylines ? She ’s a very capable actress ( she acquire an Oscar forA Beautiful Mind ) , but at the rate she ’s going , she ’ll terminate up leaving behind a legacy of very messed up characters . Having said all that , House of Sand and Fogis an reasoning moving-picture show , with excellent quality development . Some scene may seem hokey or overblown , but I never felt like the flick stoop so low as to insult my intelligence service . It ’s just a pity that it was n’t marketed better . In fact , the only reason I saw it was because I of late purchased the DVD ofAmerican Beauty . It was bundle in a two - pack withHouse of Sand and Fogfor two buck more thanAmerican Beautywould have be by itself . Some movies do n’t get much of a chance , I pretend .
House of Sand and Fog is a dramatic event film directed by Vadim Perelman , starring Jennifer Connelly and Ben Kingsley . The tarradiddle orbit around a conflict over a household in Northern California , highlighting themes of loss and shift . Connelly plays Kathy Nicolo , a go back addict whose prop is auction off off due to a bureaucratic mistake , while Kingsley portrays Massoud Amir Behrani , an Persian immigrant who purchases the house for his family .
House of Sand and Fog is a drama film directed by Vadim Perelman, starring Jennifer Connelly and Ben Kingsley. The story revolves around a dispute over a house in Northern California, highlighting themes of loss and displacement. Connelly plays Kathy Nicolo, a recovering addict whose property is auctioned off due to a bureaucratic error, while Kingsley portrays Massoud Amir Behrani, an Iranian immigrant who purchases the house for his family.
