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Dubus has an extraordinary ability to get us inside each of his characters, to see the world as it is for each of them. These are people with ordinary flaws, people just looking for a small piece of ground to stand on, driven by the same needs into inevitable conflict—a conflict in which even the reader, rooting for all of them, has no safe haven. In this page-turning, breathtaking novel, the characters will walk off the page and into your life. And a small house will seem like the most important piece of territory in the world. Both Connelly and Kingsley seem to walk straight out of the book’s pages onto the screen. All these subtleties and nuances, worked out by Dubus in his book, contribute to a story bracingly devoid of good guy/bad guy dynamics.
Facts About The Movie House Of Sand And Fog
Unfolding relentlessly from its tense and colorful first lines, House of Sand and Fog is a narrative triumph. It turns both the traditional immigrant success story and a modern love story upside down with a heartrending outcome, in a masterstroke of American realism and Shakespearean consequence. It is an American tragedy, and a shockingly true picture of the country we live in today. On a road crew in California, a former colonel in the Iranian Air Force under the Shah yearns to restore his family's dignity. When an attractive bungalow comes available on county auction for a fraction of its value, he sees a great opportunity for himself, his wife, and his children.
Review: 'House of Sand and Fog' author returns with story of 'Kindness' - Star Tribune
Review: 'House of Sand and Fog' author returns with story of 'Kindness'.
Posted: Fri, 02 Jun 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Plot
For their part, Kathy and Lester view Behrani as a money-grubbing usurper, immorally taking what’s not rightfully his. In an intricate succession of mistakes, wrong decisions, happenstance and bad luck, the friction between the vying parties becomes worse, exacerbated by mutual suspicions and knee-jerk prejudices. Disdainful of Americans for being soft and undisciplined and offended at being commonly mistaken for an Arab or a gypsy, Behrani considers Kathy commonplace and a whore. But Kathy, a beautiful but damaged former drug addict whose father died several months back and whose husband recently split, never bothered opening her mail and therefore missed all the warnings. The home he acquires, an attractively shabby bungalow in a woodsy suburban area, is one just lost by Kathy Nicolo (Jennifer Connelly), who has been evicted over non-payment of business taxes. The whole affair has been a mistake; there had never been a business operated on the premises, and the amount in question is only $500.
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Lester breaks into the house and locks the Behranis in their bathroom at gunpoint until they agree to return the house to Kathy. When Lester takes the Behranis to the county office, Behrani's son, Esmail, retrieves the gun and is shot by authorities. When Behrani finds out in the hospital that his son has died, he is overcome with grief and rage at both Lester and Kathy. He returns to the house to find Kathy still there and attempts to strangle her. Believing Kathy to be dead, he dons his Army uniform and suffocates both himself and his wife, who had been asleep in the bedroom.
It is a dark and tragic film that explores the consequences of human actions. Did House of Sand and Fog receive any awards or nominations? Yes, House of Sand and Fog received several award nominations, including three Academy Award nominations and four Golden Globe nominations. At the heart of House of Sand and Fog lies a gripping conflict surrounding the ownership of a house, which sets off a chain of events with devastating consequences. House of Sand and Fog draws its origins from the critically acclaimed novel of the same name written by Andre Dubus III.
Shawn Lawrence Otto’s screenplay masterfully adapts Andre Dubus III’s novel, capturing its essence and translating it into a compelling cinematic experience. House of Sand and Fog boasts a remarkable ensemble cast, with every actor delivering a compelling and authentic performance that adds to the film’s emotional depth. The film’s atmospheric setting, with its desolate landscapes and hauntingly beautiful cinematography, adds an extra layer of depth to the storytelling. House of Sand and Fog delves deep into the complexities of the human psyche, showcasing the extreme lengths people will go to protect what they believe is rightfully theirs. Renowned composer James Horner created a hauntingly beautiful score for House of Sand and Fog, enhancing the emotional impact of the film. Vadim Perelman’s directorial debut showcases his unique vision and ability to bring the complexities of the story to life on the silver screen.
Abandoned by her husband, recovering drug addict Kathy Nicolo, living alone in a small house near the San Francisco Bay Area, ignores eviction notices erroneously sent to her for nonpayment of business taxes. Assuming the misunderstanding was cleared up, she is surprised when Sheriff's Deputy Lester Burdon arrives to forcibly evict her. Telling Kathy that her home is to be auctioned off, Lester feels sympathy for her, helps her move out, and advises her to seek legal assistance to regain her house.
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Just as both sides are technically in the right and justified in their feelings, so are both enormously flawed and culpable for the events that unwind so sadly. Still, momentary hopes spring from little bursts of humanity that emerge from the rigid positions. At the same time, young Esmail comes to feel sorry for the bedraggled woman.
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Meanwhile, Kathy Nicolo, a former drug addict who is still recovering from her husband’s abrupt departure, has been evicted from her home, long owned by her family, because of unpaid taxes the county wrongfully claimed she owed. When the house is placed for auction, Behrani seizes the opportunity and purchases it, depleting his son's entire college fund. He plans to renovate the house and then resell it for much more than he originally paid as a first step on the way to establishing himself in real-estate investment.
Into the lives of these two blameless parties comes a third, Lester Burdon (Ron Eldard), the deputy sheriff who evicts Kathy but is touched by her grief, then stirred by her beauty. If we are keeping a moral accounting, then his is the blame for what eventually happens. It is fair enough to fight for your home and family, but not fair to misuse your uniform -- not even if your excuse is love, or what is spoken of as love. Lester says he will leave his wife and family for Kathy, and although maybe he will, he certainly shouldn't. There is a moment when they start sharing an empty cottage in the woods, and as he leaves, she asks if he'll come back, and then quickly adds, "I'll understand if you don't." The house was left to her and her brother when their father died.
While maintaining the book’s delicate balance and a fair measure of its tension, which perceptibly sags around the mid-way point but later picks up again, Perelman has made a film dominated more than anything by its actors. With the arrival of Zack Snyder's latest Rebel Moon chapter on Netflix, we rank every one of the director's films—from bad to, well, less bad—by Metascore. In 2003 the novel was adapted into a film of the same title starring Ben Kingsley and Jennifer Connelly. While the novel suggests that experiences in Lester Burdon's youth were responsible for some of his rash decisions, the movie does not attempt to explain any of his motivations. The movie's ending differs from that of the novel, removing the final confrontation between Behrani and Kathy.
The consequences of the Behranis' deaths on Kathy are also not explored in the movie. In desperation, Kathy goes to the house and attempts to commit suicide twice, first trying to shoot herself and then overdosing on pills. The Behranis manage to stop her both times and she is put in a bedroom to rest.
But the house's former owner, a recovering alcoholic and addict down on her luck, doesn't see it that way, nor does her lover, a married cop driven to extremes to win her love and get her house back. Despondent, Kathy becomes drunk and attempts suicide in the driveway with Lester's sidearm. Massoud finds Kathy drunkenly unable to discharge the gun, and brings her inside. Kathy tries to kill herself again with pills, but Nadereh saves her. As she and her husband carry Kathy to the bedroom, Lester breaks in and sees Kathy unconscious.
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