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Movies / On DVD / House of Sand and Fog
House of Sand and Fog

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House of Sand and Fog (2003)

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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

[See More Credits]

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Reviews for House of Sand and Fog

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121 - 140 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 >> >|
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The picture's greatest strength is the way it shifts our loyalties from one character to the next, never allowing us to view either [person] as a villain (or hero) for long.

Full Review Source: Creative Loafing | comment Comment
12/23/03
Matt Brunson
Matt Brunson
Creative Loafing

Before it runs off course into excess, this brilliantly acted film version of the 1999 novel by Andre Dubus III moves with a stabbing urgency.

Full Review Source: Rolling Stone | comment Comment
12/23/03
Peter Travers
Peter Travers
Rolling Stone

A very good film with a special performance by Ben Kingsley.

Full Review Source: Film Threat | comment Comment
12/23/03
David Grove
David Grove
Film Threat

Everything that happens in this bloated Lifetime Movie could have been avoided if its heroine hadn't spent months wallowing in such self-pity that she couldn't open her mail.

Full Review Source: Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) | comment Comment
12/23/03
Ken Hanke
Ken Hanke
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

The casting is well-nigh perfect from top to bottom.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
12/23/03
Todd McCarthy
Todd McCarthy
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The House of Sand and Fog is clearly one of the best films of the year, but probably won't be recognized come award season due to the downbeat nature of the story.

Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews | comment Comment
12/21/03
David Nusair
David Nusair
Reel Film Reviews

Kingsley's subtle acting style is lifted to blissfully new heights in the first half of the film, where he often does nothing but focus his intense glare on a subject.

Full Review Source: FilmStew.com | comment Comment
12/21/03
Larry Carroll
Larry Carroll
FilmStew.com

The audience laughed at the improbability of the story. This is a bad sign.

Full Review Source: FilmsInReview.com | comment Comment
12/21/03
Victoria Alexander
Victoria Alexander
FilmsInReview.com

It fails to sustain a sense of tragic inevitability and that prevents it from being truly involving.

Full Review Source: Movie Mom at Yahoo! Movies | comment Comment
12/19/03
Nell Minow
Nell Minow
Movie Mom at Yahoo! Movies

Ineluctably compelling.

Full Review Source: USA Today | comment Comment
12/19/03
Claudia Puig
Claudia Puig
USA Today

Over-baked an[d] unimpressive.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
12/19/03
Ken Fox
Ken Fox
TV Guide's Movie Guide

A grim, challenging movie that will amply reward audiences willing to go along with its ride into the dark depths of its characters' souls.

Full Review Source: New York Post | comment Comment
12/19/03
Lou Lumenick
Lou Lumenick
New York Post

A sad, rich story, full of misunderstandings, bad bargains, odd parallels.

Full Review Source: New York Daily News | comment Comment
12/19/03
Jami Bernard
Jami Bernard
New York Daily News

A fine, truly serious picture whose only other major flaw is a climactic turn into melodrama of the most horrifically punishing kind.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Daily News | comment Comment
12/19/03
Bob Strauss
Bob Strauss
Los Angeles Daily News

This House is worth a peek.

Full Review Source: E! Online | comment Comment
12/19/03
E! Online
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Is there anything that makes you want to scream more than a film that’s this full of its own gravity and import?

Full Review Source: Flick Filosopher | comment Comment
12/19/03
MaryAnn Johanson
MaryAnn Johanson
Flick Filosopher

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.

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
12/19/03
Mark Keizer
Mark Keizer
Boxoffice Magazine

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: www.susangranger.com | comment Comment
12/19/03
Susan Granger
Susan Granger
www.susangranger.com

Looks great, the performances are top-notch, but it's a difficult film to watch - it starts off sad and goes downhill from there.

Full Review Source: TheMovieChicks.com | comment Comment
12/19/03
Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone
Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone
TheMovieChicks.com

Not easy to sit through, but it has something worthwhile to communicate and strong actors who go all out to communicate it.

Full Review Source: Window to the Movies | comment Comment
12/18/03
Jeffrey Chen
Jeffrey Chen
Window to the Movies
 
 
121 - 140 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 >> >|
all

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