"House of Sand and Fog" (2003) - Movie Review

Often we go through an incident and handle it by the spur of its whirlpool enormity of the situation and the reason by a person to be in an unknown area of his judgments and actions. At that moment, words flow like a river of uncontrollable filter to brain and mouth. What has said will stay forever and the emotions are going to haunt him/her for rest of his/her life despite atonements and apologies. Those emotions are the ones which would be in the firm grip of the grasses and stones. Not a house of bricks and bones of contention. And “House of Sand and Fog” is a sad story to remind us that. It is a film tough to watch through the end because its confrontations are sour for its harsh truth.

We are aliens in a great wide earth yet we have borders, boundaries and fences especially to the place we live in. In a turn of events Kathy (Jennifer Connelly) loses her house to the county for not paying business tax which she does not owe. She is in a state of personal and financial depression. Massoud Behrani (Ben Kingsley) of Iranian origin has got his daughter married and has a son waiting to finish his school. He seizes the opportunity to make money out of this deal by auctioning Kathy’s house to sell it later for a better price. He is in desperate needs too. This tug of war for the property becomes the fulcrum of many traumatic events.

These are all good people caught in a situation of survival driven by the affection for their family members. Behrani used to be a Colonel and behaves as one in the immigrated America. He is sharp and clean. He works hard labour for feeding his family but opts for the life of luxurious personnel. Drowning in dirt he comes to his expensive suite but before he enters the apartment goes to a rest room and cleans up. He shaves and dresses up in a suit sparkling. He is the man of the house. He has a faithful and loyal wife Nadi (Shohreh Aghdashloo) with broken English and an unbelievable patience. She questions his decision only to be asked to shut up and follow orders. Behrani is not all tightened. He knows to be calm, respectful, and gentle. He is a husband and a father taking every single moment of pride in his management of his family. And he adores his son Esmail (Jonatha Ahdout).

In comes Kathy need of a morale support. Her family has been critical of her life that we get every thing we want to know about them or to be precise what Kathy thinks in a single phone call at the start. Kathy has not said a word about her separation with her husband and her current eviction. She has always opted for alcohol and cigarettes but has managed to keep it under control for few years only the current situation to tempt her to succumbing for it. She finds support in a married police person Lester (Ron Eldard). Lester is clean even in his act of adultery and its consequence. Once a bad guy for him it is always a bad guy which proves fatal.

This is a film of human dynamics failing to communicate or acknowledge a translation of it. Everything gets masked by the cloud of injustice, anger and sadly a lot of fear. Fear to lose the identity, love and a roof. The attachment we create towards our living space is a scale model for having a country, state and city to belong. This feeling to belong over an earth more than people is astounding. I know how much I feel about the house I grew up. I remember the day I visited it back which we rented. It is an unexplainable feeling to see some other people reside at the place I used to call as home, my room, the dining room, living room with a corner for TV. The shelf whose edges never failed to indent my skin every time I crossed. The scratches and splinters sound a poetic invitation. And for that moment the object comes to life. In Roger Deakins cinematography the lines of that poem are read through rays, shadows and remarkable human presence.

Vadim Perelman, the architect of this film debuts and it is a classy and artistic piece of framed emotions of tragedy. We feel angry at the end towards Kathy for her insolent association with the house and the action she takes upon herself. But we realize the zeal of Behrani in sticking to his gut for desperation. The innocence shattered is the people who get involved in this battle. In between so many people’s mixed emotions and judgments, all it takes is a bullet for a great tragedy. In every sobbing moments of the end, we think of the title over and over again to weep in our hearts of helplessness.