The excellent acting is not quite enough to make us care.
House of Sand and Fog (2003)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:166
Fresh:125
Rotten:41
Average Rating:7.1/10
Consensus: Powerful and thought provoking film.
Rated: 15 [See Full Rating] for some violence/disturbing images, language and a scene of sexuality
Runtime: 2 hrs 6 mins
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:27-02-2004
Synopsis: Ben Kingsley and Jennifer Connelly star in the powerful drama HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG as two people fighting over the same house. Connelly is Kathy, a troubled young woman struggling with addiction... Ben Kingsley and Jennifer Connelly star in the powerful drama HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG as two people fighting over the same house. Connelly is Kathy, a troubled young woman struggling with addiction and her husband's departure. Lost in her funk, she fails to check her mail, which includes letters threatening to evict her. After she is thrown out of the house she grew up in--wrongly, it turns out, so she seeks legal representation--Massoud Amir Behrani (Kingsley) buys the property at auction with the goal of selling it at a huge profit so his family can live a better life. Behrani, a former colonel in the Iranian army, is determined to make his family's move to the United States a successful one--nothing matters more to him than his wife and son's well-being. But when he sees Kathy sleeping in a car outside his fence, he knows he is in for a fight. Based on the book by Andre Dubus III, Vadim Perelman's directorial debut is a fascinating study of family in the United States. Kathy has no one to turn to--her father is dead, her husband has abandoned her, and she's too frightened to seek help from her mother or brother. She falls for Lester (Ron Eldard), a deputy sheriff who claims to no longer love his wife. And Behrani is so dedicated to his wife (Shohreh Aghidashloo in a riveting performance) and son (Jonahtan Ahdout) that he blinds himself to Kathy's dire situation. HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG is a relentless, thought-provoking work that will linger with audiences long after the film ends. [More]
Starring: Ben Kingsley, Jennifer Connelly, Ron Eldard, Jonathan Ahdout
Starring: Ben Kingsley, Jennifer Connelly, Ron Eldard, Jonathan Ahdout, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Frances Fisher, Kim Dickens, Navi Rawat
Director: Vadim Perelman
Director: Vadim Perelman
Screenwriter: Vadim Perelman, Shawn Otto
Producer: Michael London, Vadim Perelman
Composer: James Horner
Studio: DreamWorks Distribution LLC
Reviews for House of Sand and Fog
Could have been even more compelling with a less heavy-handed approach to the material.
This is the movie The Hours should have been. Proof that you can tell a melancholy story with tragic characters, but provide dramatic bite and compelling entertainment.
Without the right combination of actors, House of Sand and Fog could have easily deteriorated into a feature-length melodramatic soap opera.
Kingsley's astonishing performance is wasted in this otherwise overlong, overwrought, and overcooked mess-o-drama.
Kingsley's skill is ours to enjoy throughout this film, which opens our eyes so we can squint through the fog.
It's difficult to imagine that Kingsley could top his blistering performance in Sexy Beast, but here it is.
Vadim Perelman's "House of Sand and Fog" is one of the low points of the current movie season. But then it's meant to be.
The dramatic scheme is to show how two people ... intersect "tragically," but what we see is a group of characters who act as wrongheadedly and intransigently as imaginable.
What could have been, in lesser hands, a cheap and heartless real estate smackdown is instead a somber, intriguing and morally juicy drama for most of its running time.
All of a sudden, House of Sand and Fog turned into one of the saddest flicks I've seen in a long time with an extremely powerful performance by Ben Kingsley.
Latest News for House of Sand and Fog
September 05, 2007:
Atlas Shrugged Gets a New Director
It's been twiddling its thumbs in development limbo for nearly five years, but according to Variety, the film adaptation of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged is on again. More...
July 08, 2005:
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Head on over to the film's official site for your first look at the trailer to "The Exorcism of Emily Rose." The supernatural horror flick is directed by Scott... More...
May 06, 2005:
Connelly and P.S. Hoffman to Do a New "Macbeth"
Director Todd Louiso ("Love Liza") has been trying to get his "Macbeth" adaptation off the ground for a while, and it looks like things are finally moving... More...
March 17, 2003:
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