Lastly, “House of Sand and Fog” is a tough movie to like because so few of its characters are sympathetic. They are all fine actors and actresses, and they give convincing performances, but Connelly is so flaky and selfish, Eldard has a God complex, and Kingsley is proud and just plain mean. They all do good things and bad things, but they seem to do a lot more bad. Only the colonel’s son is genuinely likeable, and proves to be courageous and compassionate, even if he does suffer from a moment of poor judgment.
“House of Sand and Fog” is the story of weak and erring people, like all of us, brought into a bind and then unable to extricate themselves. As I said before, neither the housekeeper nor the colonel should have to suffer for the county’s mistake. But, then again, why should the county’s taxpayers have to suffer for it either?
WHAT MY DAMN WIFE THINKS:
"To quote the inimitable internet critic, Mr. Cranky:
"'There isn't a character with an admirable motive in the entire film. Kathy basically gets evicted for being lazy and not answering her mail. Lester (Ron Eldard), the cop who evicts her, sees a hot, vulnerable, young woman with no place to stay, so he terrorizes the Behranis to score booty points. For his part, Colonel Behrani is just trying to turn a profit on the house.'
"Indeed. This film is about three self-centered people fighting over ownership of one house as a result of a bureaucratic mistake. The fact that they turn against one another, instead of the county which made the mistake at everyone’s expense, is the first of many problems in this film whose protagonists behave not according to their characters, but according to the requirements of a screenplay. Two of these people, Kathy the homeowner, and the cop who 'helps' her, prove entirely amoral and unsympathetic, so I really didn’t care whether she got her house back, not to mention the fact that her own irresponsibility contributed to her wrongful eviction. The third person involved, Colonel Behrani, is a very stern man, but one with morals and the capacity for compassion which emerges too late. This film could have been a good tragedy, in which fate brings these characters together and they are each destroyed by the interplay of their individual weaknesses. But no, it is two hours of unlikable people making bad decisions unnecessarily, or for reasons that don’t make sense. It is to Ben Kingsley’s and Jennifer Connelly’s credit that the movie is just poor, rather than awful. Two stars.'
Finished January 19, 2004
Copyright © 2004 Friday & Saturday Night
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