neumu [ cinematronic ]




	House Of Sand and Fog
	Vadim Perelman Ben Kingsley, Jennifer Connolly, Ron Eldard, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Jonathan Ahdout, Frances Fisher 2003		Relentlessly downbeat but extremely well made, "House of Sand and Fog" is a full-on tragedy with sympathetic characters on two sides of a volatile situation. They're heading for an inevitable collision that unreels like a car crash in slow motion. Since Academy Award winners Ben Kingsley and Jennifer Connolly play the reluctant adversaries, the acting is not too shabby in first-time director Vadim Perelman's heartrending interpretation of Andre Dubus III's novel. Kingsley gives a typical soul-searching, gut-wrenching performance as Massoud, an Iranian immigrant who was a high-ranking army officer in his native land and is reduced to working multiple jobs so that he, his wife and son can survive comfortably in the San Francisco area. Eager to improve his lot, Massoud learns of a house being auctioned off by the state, and purchases it at a bargain price. But the residence was improperly taken from its owner, an unstable woman named Kathy (Connolly). Although Kathy's life was already a shambles, it's now worse. She's desperate to hold onto her home, and Massoud is simply following his adopted country's legal rules of acquisition. Neither party is wrong. The bureaucracy has screwed them both, and there's no turning back. With Ron Eldard as a deputy sheriff who tries to help Kathy and gets drawn into the maelstrom.