UrbanWire

Cast: Jennifer Connelly, Ben Kingsley, Shohreh Aghdashloo
Director: Vadim Perelman

After her husband left her months earlier, Kathy Nicolo (played by Jennifer Connelly, fresh from her Best Supporting Actress win in A Beautiful Mind) is a self-destructive alcoholic who finds herself teetering on the brink of desperation when her house is mistakenly seized by the county and put up for public auction. When the mistake comes to light, it's too late, the house has been sold and the new owner is asking for 4 times his original price.

Academy Award winner (Sexy Beast) Ben Kingsley is Massoud Amir Behrani, previously an Air Force Colonel in the Shah of Iran's inner circle who was exiled. Since then, he's been reduced to working menial jobs in America, facing discrimination based on his Arabic heritage.

Regardless, Massoud tries to keep up pretences by living in an apartment he cannot afford and furnishing it lavishly. He puts on a brave front with his wife and son, and does his best to impress the in-laws. When he sees Kathy's house in the public auction, he sees it as a profit opportunity and restoration of dignity for himself and his family.

Neither Kathy nor Massoud are willing to let the house go because it holds significant but different meanings to them. To Massoud, the house represents the former prestige and prosperity the family once knew. To Kathy, the house, a gift from her late father, is the key to her past and the last bastion of any sense of a stable life that she once had.

Distressed from being evicted and forced to live in her car, Kathy meets Deputy Lester Burdon, played by Ron Eldard, whose feelings for Kathy cause him to leave his wife and kids to join her in the dispute to reclaim her house. Lester takes the law into his own hands, leading to a melodramatic showdown.

Originally a novel by Andre Dubus III, House of Sand and Fog highlights the loneliness of its characters. It brings to light the discriminated but proud Massoud and his long suffering wife, a desperate Kathy estranged from her mother and brother, and Lester who is trapped in a perfect family he has no passion for, in a gripping and revealing film.

The adaptation is beautifully told and the acting is superb. Consider the evidence - both Kingsley and Iranian film star Shohreh Aghdashloo (Mrs Behrani) are nominated in the coming Oscars for Best Actor in a leading role and Best Actress in a supporting role respectively.

Kudos must be given to Kingsley for his brilliant portrayal of a man who yearns for the former glory of a rich life. We watch as he chews on a bar of Snickers and meticulously writes down the amount he had just spent in his notebook.

Aghdashloo plays a very convincing Mrs Behrani - kind hostess, loving mother and loyal wife. At the same time, she balances the genial character with the other side of Mrs Behrani - strong, gracious, stands up to her husband and whose kindness and compassion will not tolerate Massoud's mistreatment of Kathy.

However, the film moves far too slowly and there isn't enough development to justify Lester Burdon's drastic actions that lead to tragedy towards the end of the show, which brings the film to a soap-operatic level.

Despite these flaws House of Sand and Fog is a powerful story that tells the tale of the American dream, chased by people of such diverse culture, gone awry, exposing an unsettling truth - that our hopes can sometimes lead to disaster.