House Of Sand And Fog

Year: 2003

Grade: B

Country: USA

Director: Perelman

Review

another fine story, but, at least for me, this one had a more substantial meaning to it. in big fish i got the idea that life is okay, but it’s better when you let it take on a life of its own…fantasize and embellish a bit. house of sand and fog is a bit more contemporary, but also (like big fish) has a timeless moral. more on that later. house of sand and fog is a tightly constructed piece. one can tell from watching it that it was pretty well conceived, storyboarded and edited. ben kingsley was good, but jennifer connelly was even better – and not just because she’s amazingly hot. connelly (a recovering alcoholic) loses her house as a result of a bureaucratic mistake. kingsley buys the house as an investment opportunity which, to him symbolizes returning his family to the greatness they once held in iran. connelly is befriended by a local cop who is sympathetic to her quandry and tries to play tough with kingsley. as expected things escalate while connelly begins to drink again and thus spirals downwards. it’s not just about two parties fighting over a home in the bay area, it could easily be seen as a reflection of the current problems of the middle east. though very well-acted and put together, it does suffer from a poor score and a little too much slow-motion-draw-out-the-tears mumbo jumbo towards the end.

Watched in theater