5/24/2023 0 Comments House of sand and fogThis is both a good and not-so-good thing. “House of Sand and Fog” is adapted from the novel of the same name by André Dubus III and is an almost note-by-note recreation of that story to the big screen. Les’s naïve good intent unleashes a torrent of events that will ultimately end in tragedy. Les lies and leaves with the parting advice to the family: Sell the house back to the county or else. The threat incenses Behrani and he demands the officer’s name. Behrani, Nadi (Shohreh Aghdashoo), whose English isn’t so good, into a panic – she is, after all, from a country where a uniform always carried authority. Les threatens the Behranis with real trouble and drops the word “deportation” in his threat. He approaches the man on the pretext that Behrani put up For Sale signs illegally on public property. Les has the bright idea that he can speed up the process of getting Kathy’s house back and dresses up in his uniform, sans ID tag, to pay a little visit to Mr. Lester leaves his wife and he and Kathy move into a friend’s vacant fishing cabin. These two sad souls, adrift as they are in this cruel world, come together with passion. Les tells about his own problem living with a woman, the mother of his two children, that he no longer loves or has physical contact with. They have dinner and she tells him of her woes – a past of substance abuse, abandoned by her husband, losing her home, mom’s pending visit and more. Officer Les is attracted to the beautiful Kathy and keeps showing up nearby. Now she doesn’t even have a house for mom to visit. She could, at least, cover that by saying he is away on business. In a few short weeks her mother plans to visit and Kathy never told her about her husband’s desertion. Kathy has sought legal counsel for her dilemma – she is in the right but she should have responded to the notices, she is told by legal aid attorney Connie Walsh (Frances Fisher) – but the whole process could drag on for months. The man is truly trying to live the American dream. Behrani’s strategy is to sell the house as soon as possible and turn the profits into the beginning of financial prosperity for his family. He is advised that a widow’s walk could be cheaply added on and greatly enhance the value of the place. Since then, Behrani has secretly worked as a laborer, gas station attendant or whatever job he could get to make money to buy such a home as Kathy’s bungalow - at a bargain basement price. Behrani and his family came to America after the fall of the Shah and Iran cam under the rule of the fanatic Ayatollahs. The house, Kathy’s only tangible possession, goes to the highest bidder, a former colonel in the Shah of Iran’s air force, Massoud Amir Behrani (Ben Kingsley). The next thing she knows, her home, a gift from her dead father, is up for auction and sold for a quarter of its worth. She is told that she must vacate the premises – now! One of the cops, Deputy Sheriff Lester Burdon (Ron Eldard), feels sorry for the obviously distraught Kathy and he offers to call in some markers and get some movers to haul her possessions into storage. Suddenly, a county representative waving an eviction notice, a locksmith and two sheriff’s officers are at her door. She figured, after all, that she is not running a business in her home and doesn’t even open the notices of pending foreclosure. She is also a recovering drug abuser and is so distracted by her problems that she ignores several notices from the county stating that she owes back business taxes on her home. When a police officer approaches from behind she is startled from her reverie and we are transported to a previous time, when the problems all began, in “House of Sand and Fog.” Robin: Kathy Nicolo’s (Jennifer Connelly) husband walked out on her months ago and she still has not gotten over it. A woman stands smoking in the mist and watches the vehicle drive off. An ambulance pulls away into the fog, lights flashing.
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