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House of Sand and Fog | Rotten Tomatoes

️Fri Dec 26 2003

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Antonia Quirke London Evening Standard While the book reads as tragedy, the film feels like melodrama, and really hasn't the guts for Connolly's natural spirit and warmth, or Kingsley's beautiful canniness. They both feel completely throttled, done in by the film's over-calculated heaviness. Dec 20, 2017 Full Review Candice Frederick Reel Talk Online ... it recaptured my attention with the pitch-perfect performances of both Ben Kingsley and Shohreh Aghdashloo. Rated: B+ Sep 12, 2017 Full Review Nell Minow Common Sense Media Serious and thoughtful; for mature teens+. Rated: 4/5 Dec 24, 2010 Full Review Diana Tuova Spotlight on Film [The film] is imbued with an almost poetic beauty, probably thanks to the work of Deakins (cinematography) and Horner (score)...[and another] great thing about [it] is the fact that the audience understands the positions of both Kathy and Behrani. Rated: 4/5 Aug 9, 2024 Full Review David Walsh World Socialist Web Site The intuition that violent, terrible acts flow inexorably in part from Americans' unawareness and incomprehension of the simplest facts of their own lives is undeniably true. Feb 15, 2021 Full Review Cole Smithey ColeSmithey.com A lack of empathetic characters cripples this poorly paced but well acted drama about an Iranian family who purchase a city-auctioned bungalow in Northern California after its former tenant has been unjustly evicted. Rated: C May 9, 2009 Full Review Read all reviews

Dallas H I first watched this movie decades ago, shortly after it was released. Even then, as I do now, I still don't agree with casting an English actor to portray an Iranian character. It just doesn't make sense to me. Also, the story itself is okay. It seems to lean into the usual selfish American idealogue of the American Karen who thinks the universe revolves around her life. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/19/25 Full Review Amy A Really great acting from Ben Kingsley. The misunderstandings about her house payments/reason it was taken away were not very clear & this affected the seriousness of the storyline. As it wasn't very clear why he should give the house back. I actually cried at part of the film and don't really know why - perhaps it was Kingsley's incredible acting. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 10/19/24 Full Review Bronwyn D Acting was great. All the misunderstandings & miscommunication made me dizzy so I didn't really care for it overall. Plus the loss of rationality on everyone's part (especially the cop/lover) I thought was over the top. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 10/17/24 Full Review Ohad R A very moving tragedy. The acting is superb, especially by Jennifer Connelly, Ben Kingsley, and Shohreh Aghdashloo. The plot is, essentially, about how bad decisions lead to more bad decisions, ending in disaster. A hard hitting film, I couldn't bear to watch it again. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 08/02/24 Full Review Alan W It's a very moving film. Watching how one event leads tragically to the next, like dominoes falling. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/23/24 Full Review Jelisije J One of the most tragic mature modern movies that you will ever see and its absolutly a must watch.......sad to say I can never recommend this film to be watch over and over again for entertainment value. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/02/24 Full Review Read all reviews

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Synopsis Reformed drug addict Kathy Nicolo (Jennifer Connelly) has her California coast house, which she inherited from her father, taken away by the county due to a misunderstanding about back taxes. The place is bought by Iranian immigrant Massoud Amir Behrani (Ben Kingsley), who intends to fix it up and sell it in order to provide a better life for his wife (Shohreh Aghdashloo) and son (Jonathan Ahdout). However, Kathy, desperate to get the house back, begins harassing Behrani so he will return it.

Director

Vadim Perelman

Producer

Michael London

Screenwriter

Vadim Perelman, Shawn Otto, Andre Dubus

Distributor

DreamWorks SKG, Miramax Films

Production Co

DreamWorks SKG, Bisgrove Entertainment, Cobalt Media Group

Rating

R (Language|Disturbing Images|Scene of Sexuality|Violence)

Genre

Drama

Original Language

English

Release Date (Theaters)

Dec 26, 2003, Wide

Release Date (Streaming)

May 14, 2014

Box Office (Gross USA)

$13.0M

Runtime

2h 6m

Sound Mix

Surround