Review of House of Sand and Fog (2003) by Sutthirak P — 18 Oct 2012

Although it starts with a very good premise and keeps to maintain a good level along great part of the movie, there are big flaws in this movie. To start, while Kingsley makes a interpretation with great dignity most of the time (until the end, when trings are a little complicated), Connelly does not fit in the role.

It is not that she does really bad, is more that she, with her wonderful hair and nice skin, does not look a woman in the middle of a vital crisis. The movie, however, moves in a strange direction, which does not allow to think so much in the interior drama of the characters (which was the thing that looked convincing in the beginning), but in exterior factors.

So, a movie which looked intelligently thought to talk about opportunities, mistakes, points of view and even racism, commits the excess of "too much action", instead of a more calmed treatment that it may have required.

Although the end has some difficult-to-believe aspects, the final resolution gives us the opportunity to find an unexpected pathway that adds great value to the movie because of the course of events and the opportunity of actors to show certain feelings.

Anyway, it always lets us the recourse of the "what if".