This holiday season may go down as the most depressing on record with films like 21 GRAMS and THE LAST SAMURAI (which you can probably tell from the title doesn't end well). But I think HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG (based on the book by Andre Dubus III) has them all beat. This film is drop-dead misery, and I mean that in the best possible way. It also just happens to be a film filled with great acting, a devastating story about the danger of letting your unchecking emotions get the best of you, and a visual style from newcomer Vadim Perelman (who some of you may have heard has been assigned the task of turning the Stephen King-Peter Straub novel THE TALISMAN into a film for 2005) that is both eerie and completely appropriate. I know people say crap like this all the time, but the look of this film (having much to do with the weather) is like its own character here.
Ben Kingsley plays a former high-ranking Iranian colonel named Massoud Amir Behrani who was forced out of Iran when the Shah left. He fled for America with his wife (Shohreh Aghdashloo), daughter, and son. He was unable to take much money with him, but that hasn't stopped him from trying to appear rich to his friends and associates. His main concern in life was to make money to give his daughter a chance of marrying well (which she does early in the film) and to get his son into a fine university. He works two menial jobs and nearly drives his family broke for appearances sake. Then one day he discovers the world of seized property auctions, and he uses all that his family has left to buy at a fraction of its price a spacious sea-side seized house, which was taken from a woman (Jennifer Connelly) for missing only $500 in back taxes that she shouldn't have even been charged in the first place. Connelly's Kathy Nicolo is a recovering substance abuser who lives at the house alone, doesn't look at her mail, and basically sleeps all day. When she finds herself suddenly homeless, she is befriended by the deputy sheriff assisting in her eviction, Lester Burdon (Ron Eldard). Kathy's lawyer (Frances Fisher) explains to her that if the Behrani will sell the house back to the county for what he paid, she could move back in. Otherwise, she's without a home or money. But Behrani has already had the house appraised for three times what he paid, and has no intention of selling. As he and his wife and son fix up the house, they start to grow fond of it, especially the seaside location, which reminds them of their home on the Caspian Sea in Iran.
Posted by sprokopy at December 1, 2003 03:01 PM