Review of House of Sand and Fog (2003) by Dierregi — 13 Aug 2013

This gloomy tale is about ex-addict Kathy (Connelly) being evicted from her house and Colonel Behrani (Kingsley), a refugee forced to leave Iran with his family due to the fall of the Shah. Behrani buys the house in a desperate attempt to redress is financial situation, thus starting an escalating fight with Kathy.

Behrani is a stoic man, burdened with an impractical wife and a couple of children who are eating up all his income. The man works two jobs, while his family seems blissfully unaware of what is going on.

Kathy is introduced while on the phone, lying to her family. The camera shows a dirty house and unopened letters on the floor. Not the sort of introduction to elicit sympathy.

Enraged by being evicted from her house (because she was too lazy to open her mail), Kathy hires a lawyer and proceeds to manipulate Lester, a married cop, into doing some dirty work for her.Like most addicts, Kathy seems incapable to take responsibilities. Throughout the movie she is constantly blaming someone else or on the verge of drowning in self-pity.

The only thing Kathy and Behrani have in common is that they both lie to their families. They both are slightly unsympathetic, but the antipathy award goes to Lester, the policeman who embarks in the extramarital affair with Kathy, dumps wife and kids and starts threating Behrani until the bitter end.

I read the novel and liked the fact that the writer did not take sides. You really get the idea that two wrongs do not make one right. However, the movie failed to produce the same effect. Kathy comes across as the wrong one, the pushy, needy, weak, spoiled woman with a passive-aggressive attitude who can only manipulate or cry her way through life. Therefore, I found the movie disappointing.