House of Sand and Fog

Starring:Jennifer Connelly, Ben Kingsley, Ron Eldard, Frances Fisher, Kim Dickens, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Jonathan Ahdout, Navi Rawat, Carlos GÃ³mez (II), Kia Jam, Jaleh Modjallal, Samira Damavandi, Matthew Simonian, Namrata Singh Gujral, Al Faris, Mark Chaet, Marco Rodriguez, Al Rodrigo, Aki Aleong, Joyce Kurtz
Director: Vadim Perelman
Studio: Dreamworks Video
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Jennifer Connelly followed up her Academy Award for A Beautiful Mind with this dark but moving story of small mistakes that escalate, with tragic necessity, to disaster. In House of Sand and Fog, Kathy (Connelly) gets evicted from her house for failing to pay a tax she never should have been charged in the first place. The house is swiftly put up for auction and bought by a former military officer from Iran named Behrani (Ben Kingsley, Sexy Beast). When legal efforts fail her, Kathy turns to a sympathetic cop (Ron Eldard, Bastard Out of Carolina), who wants out of a loveless marriage and who's willing to step over legal boundaries if it might give him a fresh start. Topnotch performances by the entire cast make House of Sand and Fog a compelling psychological drama; your sympathies will be pulled in all directions. --Bret Fetzer

Description

Academy Award winners Ben Kingsley (Gandhi) and Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind) deliver stunning performances as two strangers whose conflicting pursuits of the American Dream lead to a fight for their hopes at any cost. What begins as a struggle over a rundown bungalow spirals into a clash that propels everyone involved toward a shocking resolution. "The surprise ending will leave you breathless!" (Clay Smith, Access Hollywood)

Customer Reviews:

Ben Kingsley is awesome, the movie is not.......2007-06-13

What could have been a great movie turned out to be a nothing movie. Ben Kingsley is excellent and gives 110% in everything he does. Jennifer Connelly was fine too and the other actors did well.

The story itself is the problem. A boring story of a girl that is angry over losing her house. You wait and wait and wait for something exciting to happen if not at least something interesting.

It doesn't. Not until the end when Ben Kingsley and his wife commit suicide.
There, I just saved you some valuable cash. Now you owe me!

Ben Kingsley's acting is wonderful but the rest of the movie is a real downer...................2007-05-26

Ben Kingsley's acting is remarkable in the film as he convincingly plays a former high ranking Iranian colonel dealing with a much lower style of living in the U.S. Jennifer Connelly is able to evoke the audience's sympathy despite her character being remarkably dumb and inept. The movie is compelling at first with an interesting and unique plot but the nightmarish ending made it difficult for me to find real enjoyment in the film. And the real estate legal situations as well as the colonel and his wife's sudden decision to take in and help the "angel bird" did not see realistic. I suppose there is a message to be learned from the movie in regards to what is really important in life but the main impression I took away from the film was the very tragic and rather graphic ending.

Mostly Good for It's Performances.......2007-05-11

House of Sand and Fog is a hopeless but convincing tragedy about contested houses and broken pasts. It is morbid and profound enough to keep the riff raff away while also being flat enough to stray from any mainstream. I enjoyed the film for the same reasons critics probably enjoyed it. The film is carried by it's performances first and foremost and almost entirely. One of the more educated knocks on House of Sand and Fog is that the book is simply not really that transferrable toward the movie medium. I never read the book but the film and story stand enough to fuel three of the better performances of that year and also the greatest ensemble considering it's cost.

First is Ben Kingsley who plays Colonel Berani, a man who was forced to flee Iran during it's revolution. He sees a similar home in San Franscisco with regards to it's view (in Iran his home oversaw the Caspian Sea beautifully). This new home was recently repossessed from Kathy, played by the beautiful and talented Jennifer Connelly. I genuinely want Connelley to show her range in the future but House of Sand and Fog is not such an environment. Here, Jennifer plays a women ruined by Alcoholism and being ditched by her husband. She then sparks up an affair with a married police officer named Lester, played by Ron Eldred, and the undermining to throw Berani out of the house begins.

First time Director Vadim Perleman takes a subtle approach in the differences and similarities between the film's main characters. It was enough to make me walk away from the film wanting more but as if by osmosis the film won me over in perspective only days later. Watching the three main characters tangled in their flaws is enough to keep the film compelling. Berani is too proud and deaf to women, Kathy is too eager and manipulative and Lester is too idealistic and blinded by love. They are all ignorant to one another and completely void of empathy. Nadi is Berani's wife and she is played by the outstanding Shohreh Aghdashloo. Nadi is one of the only really likeable characters, because she is also the only one who sees the other's sides, but she is restrained by her submissiveness and her lack of English. Though heavy handed enough to obtain a brooding feeling that tragedy is inevitable, watching these characters fall is worth the wait if you appreciate this sort of film.

Kingsly proves his versatility once again and upstages Connelly in that regard by a long shot. Connelly really just invokes the roles she's been celebrated for before this movie, although she is still quite effective and it revisits her type-casts a bit deeper. It is Aghdashloo that truely stands out and I viewed this film and her performance after the hype with some degree of suspicion. She is excellent.

Overall, House of Sand and Fog is a downer. It wasn't as good as I hoped, given both the indie hype prior to it's release and the mainstream hype during and after it's release, but it was still pretty good. The cast alone makes the film worth watching but I would still imagine we will see more from Perleman in the future as well.

A House Divided Will Fall, But This Film Soars!!! On my 10 best list!!!.......2007-04-28

This is one of those small arthouse-type films that few have heard about, but should certainly see. All too many reviewers on here have given away the entire plot of the film and that's unfortunate as this story is also something of a mystery. I will just tell why and how much I loved this film.

The acting is so powerful and believable that your heart will be tugged in every direction and you will find yourself so moved by the difficulties each character faces and how each can be both right and wrong at the same time. This story is about the gray areas in life as we rarely walk in absolute black and white. I have never witnessed such moving characters who, like in real-life, make mistakes, compound errors, attempt to improve their lives even when they don't know how, and lose what they most want to keep or regain.

The script has such believable dialogue that you will feel that you really know these characters. The direction is very unobtrusive. This film would have been disasterous in the hands of someone like Oliver Stone. The music is compelling and the photography captures the mood swings of the story and characters beautifully.

This is an awesome character-driven film that will haunt you long after it is over. Both my wife and I wept while watching it. It is an extremely emotional film and I couldn't more highly recommend it than I have.

Affecting performances and an intriguing storyline.......2007-03-28

Amir Behrani (Ben Kingsley in an Oscar-nominated performance) is working two jobs, one as a road construction worker and the other as a clerk/manager in a convenience store. He is a meticulous man, a man of dignity and pride. He has a wife Nadi (Shohreh Aghdashloo) and a teenaged son. They immigrated to the US from Iran where he was a colonel in the air force. They had a house in the days of the Shan on the Caspian Sea that they have no longer.

One day Behrani sees an ad for a repossessed house up for auction. This is the house of the title. It is owned by Kathy Nicolo (Jennifer Connelly) and her brother. We see her asleep in the house, which has gone to some disrepair, dirty dishes in the sink, unopened mail on the living room floor. She is awakened by a phone call from her mother on the east coast. It's 6 a.m. Kathy seems hung over. Her mother is coming to visit in a couple of weeks. Kathy says her husband will be out of down. She says he is lying next to her now, asleep. However he isn't.

Kathy is in a bad way. She is a recovering alcoholic. We can imagine her husband left her because of her drinking. She is trying to quit smoking. And worse yet, there comes a banging on the door and she learns that the house is being taken from her for back taxes. Signs are plastered on the doors. A county sheriff Lester (Ron Eldard) is there to make her exit the premises.

We can see the clash of cultures coming: the proud, hard-working immigrant who is going to buy the house dirt cheap and then sell it for a profit, the careless and self-indulgent American who is going to go live in her car.

Sheriff Lester is the joker in the deck. He is bored with his wife, whom he married young after growing up with her. He immediately takes a fancy to Kathy, and we can see that he will be instrumental in trying to get the house back.

So this is the premise of the movie. There are some problems with this premise, but they are minor. Behrani buys the house for forty-some thousand dollars and puts it up for sale for an hundred and seventy-some thousand. These numbers are pathetically low for the time, the 1990s, and the location, the San Francisco Bay area. Kathy is left with nothing. However after the taxes are paid she should be getting what's left of the forty-thousand. The direction by Vidim Perelman in his debut glosses over this. Furthermore, Kathy should be suing the county since they are the ones who wrongfully assessed her for a business tax.

What makes this movie work is the fine storyline, adapted by Perelman from the novel by Andre Dubus III, and superior performances by Ben Kingsley, Shohreh Aghdashloo, and Jennifer Connelly. Kingsley becomes the Iranian colonel in the most convincing manner. His motivations are clear and believable. His character is rounded and at once sympathetic and a bit off-putting. He is sexist and macho but at the same time civilized, compassionate and even admirable. Connelly, in her stringy hair and cheap cut offs becomes an injured and lost bird that has flown into this house that is no longer hers, this house that symbolizes both the American dream and the dream of the immigrant. I have seen her in a couple of other movies, most notably in A Beautiful Mind (2001). She is striking to look at, and here she proves she is a very talented actress. Her ability to turn her character from one that we are disposed to dislike to one for whom we feel great sympathy is part of what make this a superior film.

Aghdashloo, whose work got her a nomination for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 2004, also gives a fine performance in a delicate role requiring understanding and compassion. It is perhaps fitting that she was born in Tehran and speaks Farsi. (Excellent casting overall, by the way.)

Also notable is the original score by James Horner, which also received an Oscar nomination.

This movie is not only a work of art, but is intriguingly plotted so that what develops and how it ends are not easily predicted. The ending for some may seem a bit stagy, but I believe that Kingsley sold it well, and considering his character, it is quite plausible.

Charlie Rose with John Rothrock, Walter Pincus, Mark Bowden & Jerrold Post; Ben Kingsley, Shoreh Aghdashloo, Vadim Perelman & Jennifer Connelley (December 17, 2003)

Average customer rating:

Charlie Rose with John Rothrock, Walter Pincus, Mark Bowden & Jerrold Post; Ben Kingsley, Shoreh Aghdashloo, Vadim Perelman & Jennifer Connelley (December 17, 2003)

Manufacturer: Charlie Rose, Inc.
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

General | Educational | Genres | DVD | Video

Description

First, a talk about the interrogation of Saddam Hussein with retired chief of intelligence planning for the Air Force Colonel John Rothrock, former Hussein profiler for the CIA and professor of psychiatry at George Washington University Dr. Jerrold Post, and journalists Walter Pincus of The Washington Post and Mark Bowden of The Atlantic Monthly. Next, director Vadim Perelman and actors Ben Kingsley, Shoreh Aghdashloo, and Jennifer Connelley discuss their work on the film House of Sand and Fog.

Average customer rating:

Ben Kingsley is awesome, the movie is not
Ben Kingsley's acting is wonderful but the rest of the movie is a real downer............
Mostly Good for It's Performances
A House Divided Will Fall, But This Film Soars!!! On my 10 best list!!!
Affecting performances and an intriguing storyline

House of Sand and Fog [Region 2]
Starring: Jennifer Connelly , Ben Kingsley , Ron Eldard , Frances Fisher , and Kim Dickens
Director: Vadim Perelman
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( H ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
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ASIN: B00022VM9Y

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

Ben Kingsley is awesome, the movie is not.......2007-06-13

Ben Kingsley's acting is wonderful but the rest of the movie is a real downer...................2007-05-26

Mostly Good for It's Performances.......2007-05-11

A House Divided Will Fall, But This Film Soars!!! On my 10 best list!!!.......2007-04-28

Affecting performances and an intriguing storyline.......2007-03-28

House Of Sand And Fog / Anything Else (2-Pack)

Average customer rating:

Subject: A Dark, Gripping Tale Of The American Dream Turned
A great story, amazing acting and gorgeous cinematography

House Of Sand And Fog / Anything Else (2-Pack)
Starring: Shohreh Aghdashloo , Jonathan Ahdout , Aki Aleong , Mark Chaet , and Jennifer Connelly
Director: Vadim Perelman
Manufacturer: Dreamworks Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( H ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: B00020HB8M
Release Date: 2004-06-29

Customer Reviews:

Subject: A Dark, Gripping Tale Of The American Dream Turned.......2004-06-13

Vadim Perelman, in his directorial debut, has created an extraordinarily powerful drama with "The House Of Sand And Fog." Award-winning actors Jennifer Connelly and Ben Kingsley give truly great performances in this dark and tragic film of the American Dream turned nightmare. Shohreh Aghdashloo, as Kingelsy's wife Nadi, is superb as is Jonathan Ahdout, (as his teenage son Esmail). And cinematographer Roger Deakins stunning photography sets the mood throughout the film.

Persian immigrant, Massoud Amir Behrani, (Ben Kingsley), is a former colonel in the late, deposed Iranian Shah's air force. He is an intelligent, well educated man, who used to be respected in his native country as a person of position, power, and means. Behrani's former life, with all his efforts to build it, seems like it was constructed on a sea of shifting sand. He came to America with his wife, son, and daughter with limited funds, and has spent almost all of his money setting his family up in the manner to which they had been accustomed. One of the primary reasons for doing this was to marry his daughter to a member of their former social class. He is now reduced to working as a common laborer by day and a convenience store manager by night in order to provide for his family. His co-workers are men he would have given alms to in his native land. Angry and humiliated at how far he has fallen, Behrani decides to invest his remaining funds in a house that has been put up for auction at a Sheriff's Sale, because the owner had not paid property taxes. He wants to make improvements on the house and sell it at a large profit, which he hopes will enable him to provide his family with their former lifestyle, and restore some of his lost dignity.

Kathy Niccolo is a disaster waiting to happen. She is a depressed, quietly self-destructive, recovering alcoholic and addict. Her house, in the California hills overlooking the Pacific, was bequeathed to her and her brother by her beloved father. It is all she has. She is adamant in her refusal to give-up her home because of a bureaucratic error. She was evicted for failing to pay a tax she never should have been charged in the first place. However, with her usual carelessness, she ignored a number of correspondences and warnings from the local tax board.

Sheriff Lester Burdon, (Ron Eldard), delivers the eviction papers to Kathy. She confides in him and he becomes obsessed with helping her fight for justice. Lester finds himself falling in love with Kathy, although he is married with two children and much personal baggage of his own.

The contested ownership of the house is the fulcrum of the intense plot. Two people compete with increasing desperation, for the title to one small bungalow, which has a different meaning for each of them. The tragedy lies in their inability to communicate and understand one another. Part of the movie's incredible power is the difficulty one has in deciding which party to side with, as both are at once sympathetic and worthy of censure.

The film is absolutely riveting and the tension builds to a surprising climax. To say that "The House of Sand and Fog" is not upbeat entertainment is a major understatement. So, although I give the movie my highest recommendation, I do so with reservations. Prospective viewers should be cautioned that the grim intensity of this piece will stay with you for a very long time. Definitely not a films to see twice.
JANA

A great story, amazing acting and gorgeous cinematography.......2004-05-18

There are films that you have to see because of the spectacle, films with epic battles, huge explosions, larger than life characters. Then there are movies you need to see because of the story, the acting and the cinematography.

House of sand and fog falls into the second category, and boy, does it deliver just that.

First time director Vadim Perelman chose a great story for his feature film debut, based on the book by André Dubus III. Kathy Nicolo (Connelly) is a broken woman, her husband has left her, she is deeply depressed, so much so that she barely leaves her bed, until one day when the County comes to evict her for failure to pay some business taxes. Kathy is confused, she never owned a business so there were no taxes to be paid. It's all a mistake.

Retired Iranian Colonel Behrani (Kingsley) lives a double life. For the rest of the Iranian-American community, he is a respected and wealthy man who just gave his daughter away in marriage. He lives in a luxurious apartment with his wife Nadi (Aghdashloo) and son Jonathan (Ahdout). But in order to pay for this lifestyle he holds two jobs, one on a road gang and another as a clerk on a convenience store.

One day, Behrani comes across a newspaper ad informing of the auction of Kathy's home. He sees his opportunity to make a huge profit by buying it cheap and then re-selling it at market price. This way he can finally return to his former life and quit his jobs.

Kathy's lawyer (Fisher) finds out that the County made a mistake and shouldn't have place the house on auction, but by then it's too late as Behrani has already bought it. They try to convince him to re-sell the house to County, but he just won't do it.

What follows is the dramatic sequence of events triggered both by Behrani's stubborness and Kathy's lack of self control. And while it's not a 'twist', I must say I did not see the ending coming.

Not everything is perfect in this movie, though. First of all it is extremely slow. Excruciatingly so at points. At one point, I just wanted to have something happen in the movie, but then, things got into motion and rolled until the very end. There's also a side story with Lester, Ron Eldard's character after he leaves his wife and family for Kathy that I thought brought nothing to the story.

The acting simply takes this film to the next level. Connelly, Kingsley and Aghdashloo just disappear into their roles and do some of the best acting of 2003. Connelly makes the viewer both despise and feel sorry for Kathy and all her predicaments. Kingsley is amazing, once more, as the retired Colonel. He transformed himself into an Iranian National, and apparently, took very well to learning their language, even more than what was needed for the part. Aghdashloo brings beauty and frailness to the film. Her face and her expressions are so touching that you just want to go help her.

Then there's the cinematography. The film is beautifully shot, especially the inter-scene shots of the San Francisco Bay. The film was shot by Roger Deakins, who's also worked on A beautiful mind and O brother, where art thou?, and David Stockton.

Product Description

House of Sand and Fog

Average customer rating:

House of Sand and Fog/American Beauty
Starring: Jennifer Connelly , Ben Kingsley , Ron Eldard , Frances Fisher , and Kim Dickens
Director: Vadim Perelman , and Sam Mendes
Manufacturer: Dreamworks Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

( H ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: B0002234G8
Release Date: 2004-06-29

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