House of Sand and Fog (2003)
80%RT Audience Score: 83%
Awards & Nominations: Nominated for 3 Oscars
13 wins & 42 nominations total
Powerful and thought provoking film
House of Sand and Fog is a movie that will make you feel all the emotions, from tragedy to melodrama to pitch-perfect performances. Ben Kingsley and Shohreh Aghdashloo are the real stars of the show, but the film’s over-calculated heaviness can make you feel like you’re being throttled. However, if you’re in the mood for a demanding, provoking, and painfully slow drama, this one’s for you. Just make sure you have some tissues handy, because the denouement is calculated to wring out every last tear.
Production Company(ies)
Decia Films, Amazonas Images Solares Fondazione delle arti
Distributor
DreamWorks SKG, Miramax Films
Release Type
Theatrical
Filming Location(s)
Pacifica, California, USA
MPAA / Certificate
Rated R for some violence/disturbing images, language and a scene of sexuality
Year of Release
2004
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:DTS Dolby Digital SDDS
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Aspect ratio:1.85 : 1
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Runtime:2h 6m
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Language(s):English, Persian
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Dec 26, 2003 Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 30, 2004
Genre(s)
Drama
Keyword(s)
Worldwide gross: $16,763,804
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $26,444,673
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,596
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 2,883,825
US/Canada gross: $13,040,288
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $20,570,877
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 1,404
US/Canada opening weekend: $45,572
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $71,889
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,064
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): $16,500,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): $26,028,526
Production budget ranking: 1,230
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): $14,016,361
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): -$13,600,214
ROI to date (est.): -34%
ROI ranking: 1,591
Ben Kingsley – Massoud Amir
Director(s)
Vadim Perelman
Writer(s)
Vadim Perelman, Shawn Otto, Andre Dubus
Producer(s)
Michael London
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
Nominated for 3 Oscars
13 wins & 42 nominations total
Academy Awards
Oscar Nominees
All Critics (183) | Top Critics (49) | Fresh (136) | Rotten (47)
While the book reads as tragedy, the film feels like melodrama, and really hasn’t the guts for Connolly’s natural spirit and warmth, or Kingsley’s beautiful canniness. They both feel completely throttled, done in by the film’s over-calculated heaviness.
December 20, 2017
Antonia Quirke
London Evening Standard
TOP CRITIC
… it recaptured my attention with the pitch-perfect performances of both Ben Kingsley and Shohreh Aghdashloo.
September 12, 2017 | Rating: B+
Candice Frederick
Reel Talk Online
TOP CRITIC
Serious and thoughtful; for mature teens+.
December 24, 2010 | Rating: 4/5
Nell Minow
Common Sense Media
TOP CRITIC
The vivid clarity of the images, the compressed fury of the tale, are impossible to get out of your head.
November 1, 2007
David Ansen
Newsweek
TOP CRITIC
Perelman and his long-suffering stars make a spectacle of pain, but fail to register any lighter notes, while the denouement seems calculated to wring out every last tear.
June 24, 2006
Derek Adams
Time Out
TOP CRITIC
Demanding, provoking and painfully slow. The single most compelling reason for seeing it is the magnificent performance from Kingsley, who deserves every prize on the books.
April 1, 2006 | Rating: 3/5
Angie Errigo
Empire Magazine
TOP CRITIC
The intuition that violent, terrible acts flow inexorably in part from Americans’ unawareness and incomprehension of the simplest facts of their own lives is undeniably true.
February 15, 2021
David Walsh
World Socialist Web Site
A lack of empathetic characters cripples this poorly paced but well acted drama about an Iranian family who purchase a city-auctioned bungalow in Northern California after its former tenant has been unjustly evicted.
May 9, 2009 | Rating: C
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com
A fiercely powerful and melancholy tale about dreams, aspirations and belonging, House of Sand and Fog is a marvellous adaptation.
October 18, 2008
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile
August 7, 2008 | Rating: 4/5
Jim Lane
Sacramento News & Review
Vadim Perelman’s “House of Sand and Fog” is one of the low points of the current movie season. But then it’s meant to be.
November 18, 2005 | Rating: B+
Christopher Smith
Bangor Daily News (Maine)
The dramatic scheme is to show how two people … intersect “tragically,” but what we see is a group of characters who act as wrongheadedly and intransigently as imaginable.
July 19, 2005
Alan Dale
Blogcritics.org…
Plot
An emotionally broken woman, Kathy, suddenly finds herself homeless after her house is wrongly repossessed and auctioned. Seeking respite from his marriage, Lester, a sympathetic sheriff’s deputy comes to the aid of Kathy and becomes intimately involved in her situation. Soon, Behrani, a proud emigrant Iranian and his family move into the house only to find their new lives burdened by harassment from Lester and Kathy as they attempt to reclaim her former home. The once prosperous colonel denies Kathy’s pleas for he knows his recent purchase promises a profitable return and a better future for his adolescent son and his wife. But latent consequences lie beneath Behrani’s well intentioned plan as Kathy’s emotions spiral out of control and her actions spark a tragic chain of events that will leave no resident unscathed in the House of Sand and Fog.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
Ben Kingsley delivers a “strong performance” as Iranian immigrant Massoud Amir Behrani.
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