Cut to recovering alcoholic in the midst of deep depression, Kathy (Jennifer Connelly). Also, conveniently, every possible minority is represented in the back of the construction truck: an Asian man eating something with chopsticks, a Latino man eating a burrito. Except then we cut to him working as a construction worker on the side of a road in San Francisco. Some people in the wedding party argue about where Behrani works. They totes aren’t, by the by… the Shahs of Sunset on the other hand… This whole movie is kind of weird to think about in a post- Shahs of Sunset world since everyone accuses the Iranian Behranis to be money-grubbing social climbers. We cut to Nadi (Shohreh Aghdashloo) and some children laughing and dancing on the beach as Behrani (Ben Kingsley) directs workers to cut down the trees in front of his home: “To reach infinity with our eyes.” This turns into the speech Behrani gives at his daughter’s wedding. This is the central question of the movie… Symbolism! We open with the aftermath: Connelly stands in the rain smoking a cigarette and looking down at flashing police lights. Since this re-view turned into such a revision of the original film for me, I’m curious to see how I’ll react to some of those other flicks that made me weep like a child… But I’m not touching those for at least another two ( Children of Men) to ten ( 12 Years a Slave) years. I can’t say I’d recommend this movie to anyone, though it’s not terrible per se. For example, there’s a second act suicide attempt by Connelly’s character that comes out of nowhere other than the need to get her back into proximity with Kingsley’s character. Characters seem to act in order to make the plot move forward as opposed to their actions arising naturally. The family comes into conflict with the woman trying to reclaim her house with disastrous results.Įven if one considers this less of a plot-driven story and more of a character study, there’s not enough consistency in the characterization for it to be effective on that level. A hard-working Iranian immigrant (Kingsley) uses all of his savings to buy the house from the county as an investment property. This is the story of a recovering alcoholic (Connelly) who loses her house due to an error on the part of the county. This is a trite melodrama, and though there is some fine acting by Ben Kingsley, Jennifer Connelly, and Shohreh Aghdashloo, if you think about the plot for one minute, the entire thing falls apart. In my nearly 30-year-old opinion, this is not a good movie. Re-watching House of Sand and Fog, I must admit that I’m a little embarrassed by 20-year-old me’s reaction. JR ended up being one of my closest friends in college, and it all begin with a trial by fire (crafted by Dante) quickly followed by water torture (the two of us sobbing in a mostly empty theater together). I can count on one hand the number of movies that have made me downright sob in the theater-most recently Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave (2013) and most vehemently Children of Men (2006) (a movie I’m still avoiding)-and here I was, watching a movie with someone I’d just met and bawling my eyes out. We decided to go see a movie together and, for one reason or another, we picked House of Sand and Fog. JR was a mid-year transfer, too, but instead of wallowing in awkwardness like myself, he was making up for lost time. I was sitting in one of my first classes-a huge lecture course on Dante’s Inferno-when this guy randomly turned to me and introduced himself. I had just moved to Santa Barbara to attend college, and I was feeling a little awkward since I was a mid-year transfer and everyone had already had a quarter’s worth of school to get to know one another. I wasn’t avoiding the movie because I thought it was bad or anything I’ve been avoiding 2003’s House of Sand and Fog primarily because it made me cry like a freaking baby when I first saw it in theaters. I’ve been avoiding re-watching this movie for nearly ten years. Our New Year’s Gift to You: Bri LaFond‘s hilarious live blog of her experience re-watching the extremely melodramatic House of Sand and Fog.
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