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Topic: House of Sand and Fog

Gerard S. Cohen
Jedi Master Film Handler

Posts: 975
From: Forest Hills, NY, USA
Registered: Sep 2001

posted 01-03-2004 07:22 PM

At the Kew Gardens Cinema, NYC, 01/02/03. All daytime admissions $5.00. Show with trailers, 2h 15m.

This is a serious story film with elements of melodrama , in which conflicting loyalties and values lead to tragedy as in a classical kabuki drama.

Spoilers Ahead!!

The titular house serves as a catalyst revealing the aspirations of an Iranian-American and his family, versus an California born young woman who inherited it from her father.

On one side are legal rights; on the other, ethical values, but the conflict deepens as unexpected consequences result from altruistic intentions.

Ben Kingsley masterfully portrays an Iranian colonel from the Shah’s army, now an American citizen, following the economic rights of a free capitalist society, to give his family a home to compensate to the one he fled in Iran. He buys cheap and intends to sell at a great profit, as the law allows.

However, the seaside house has been mistakenly foreclosed for non-payment of taxes by a young owner, who attracted the help of a young deputy sheriff to her cause.

The viewer’s sympathies change as the movie explores the family strengths of the Iranian-American family, and the weaknesses of the native born foil characters. The colonel grows in stature through his ability to use and transcend both American values and those of his origin, while the California natives become weaker as they flounder. The woman played by Jennifer Connelly, is mired in depression, unable to maintain herself or her house, after leaving her husband, attempting to overcome addiction to alcohol, nicotine and possibly drugs. She becomes weaker as she tries to assert strength.

The deputy at first seems a minor hero, but is revealed an emotional nebbish in comparison with the colonel as the story developes.

The pivotal character is the Iranian couple’s son, who receives his father’s character-building and his mother’s love, in contrast to the homeowner’s disfunctional family—her mother is a controlling, guilt provoking mom, and her brother too wrapped in his business to help her when she is desperate. And the
deputy has left his wife and crying children for the troubled woman he has just met in the line of duty.
The boy learns from both the strengths and weaknesses of his parents, and the relationship between him and his parents becomes, for me, the highlight of the film, causing the ending to pack a shocking wallop.

While the cinematography generally tells the story economically, there are some mannered excesses, such as the frequently repeated long shots and close-ups of the young woman twirling along the beaches and docks. Perhaps it was meant to show her romantic separation from reality, but it seems an amateurish affectation to me.

The film worked for me, largely because of Ben Kingsley’s acting, which will probably earn him awards,
As he has created a most memorable character as the Iranian-Americal colonel.

Edit

I wondered where the story came from, and why director Vadim Perelman chose it for his first feature film. This was answered three days later when Randy Kennedy's "A Past of Fear and Pain For First-Time Filmmaker" appeared:
"...In many ways, the parallels between Mr.[Andre] Dubus's story and Mr. Perelman's life are extraordinary..."
Read it here:

[ 01-05-2004, 09:56 AM: Message edited by: Gerard S. Cohen ]

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