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House of Sand and Fog
DreamWorks Distribution LLC


7.7

based on 42 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 66 votes
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Rate this movie

FILM:

Life Before Her Eyes

MPAA RATING: R for some violence/disturbing images, language and a scene of sexuality

Starring Jennifer Connelly, Ben Kingsley, Ron Eldard, Frances Fisher, Kim Dickens, Shohreh Aghdashloo, Jonathan Ahdout, and Navi Rawat

A gripping exploration of the American Dream gone awry, House of Sand and Fog is the story of two people driven to desperate measures to claim ownership of a house. (DreamWorks Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Vadim Perelman Shawn Lawrence Otto Andre Dubus III (novel)
DIRECTED BY:	Vadim Perelman
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: March 30, 2004 Video: March 30, 2004 Theatrical: December 19, 2003
RUNNING TIME:	126 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

Outstanding Directorial Debut, 2003 National Board of Review; Nominated, Best First Feature, Best Male Lead (Kingsley) and Best Supporting Female (Aghdashloo), 2004 Independent Spirit Awards

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Time Richard Schickel

As reversible misunderstandings grow into irreversible tragedy, it slowly dawns on you that this is a superior, heartbreaking film.

100

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Its step-by-step tragedy is so ruthless in its unfolding, you may find yourself wishing it were less well done, that it left you some room to breathe. But House of Sand and Fog has a story to tell and it means to tell it, no matter what the cost.

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

It stands with integrity and breaks our hearts.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

Features an astonishing pair of lead performances and one of this year's most impressive directing debuts. If this movie isn't quite the contempo-Greek tragedy it wants to be, it's still a powerful, unforgettable meditation on fate, cultural collision and the morality of renovating a house that isn't really yours.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

The movie's intense watchability can be traced directly to superb performances by Jennifer Connelly and Ben Kingsley.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

The movie's intense watchability can be traced directly to superb performances by Jennifer Connelly and Ben Kingsley.

Variety Todd McCarthy

A faithful, powerful and superbly acted adaptation of Andre Dubus III's international bestseller.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Responsibility for the ensuing tragedy is so finely calibrated that neither can be comprehensively blamed or exculpated.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

Perelman and Otto make auspicious, nearly flawless debuts.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

This is a hard, challenging motion picture. It demands much from the audience, and repays that investment with powerful, engrossing drama that does not offer insulting, facile answers. House of Sand and Fog is gripping and unforgettable, one of the best movies of 2003.

USA Today Claudia Puig

The clash over the house quickly escalates into a modern-day tragedy. It is a fascinating film, handsomely adapted from the book and well directed.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

Ben Kingsley and Jennifer Connelly create characters that live and seethe with absolute credibility, and Ron Eldard’s Lester is a subtle portrait of a good man who lets himself go bad, first out of boredom, then out of erotic fixation.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

A grim, challenging movie that will amply reward audiences willing to go along with its ride into the dark depths of its characters' souls.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Just because a scenario turns dark doesn't mean that it's convincing. House of Sand and Fog is artful until it lunges for Art.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

The nearly flawless execution of a deeply flawed premise.

Newsweek David Ansen

Novelist Andre Dubus's plotting may be too much for a two-hour movie. But the story's details feel fresh. The vivid clarity of the images, the compressed fury of the tale, are impossible to get out of your head.

Dallas Observer Bill Gallo

This is not pleasant stuff, but it's important, and thoroughly heart-wrenching.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

The performances are amazing.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

The plot that follows, including the wretched young woman who lost the house, is of interest only insofar as Kingsley supports the structure with a powerful man.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

The movie's emotional impact is undeniable. It's a devastating portrait of smart, civilized people driven to behave in uncivilized ways, until it's too late.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Remember the name Shohreh Aghdashloo. The heartbreakingly fine Iranian actress is only a subsidiary character in House of Sand and Fog...But she is the soul of this pungent film.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

What makes the movie potent, though, has nothing to do with metaphor or parable. It's that the story provides Connelly, Kingsley and Shohreh Aghdashloo as Kingsley's wife with all the tools they need to resurrect, flesh out, revamp and criticize outmoded male and female roles.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Before it runs off course into excess, this brilliantly acted film version of the 1999 novel by Andre Dubus III moves with a stabbing urgency.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

There is both a sense of disappointment and relief when House of Sand and Fog crosses over into improbability, when the viewer can sit back, breathe easy again. All this trouble over the failure to open an envelope.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

It's a sad, rich story, full of misunderstandings, bad bargains, odd parallels.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Though the film is somber, it certainly commands one's attention, and for a while one's respect.

Film Threat David Grove

Might've been a great film without Lester, the Deputy, getting in the way of the key relationship between Behrani and Kathy.

The Hollywood Reporter Sheri Linden

The carefully laid foundation of suspense and dread, with its symmetries and crisp dialogue, is squandered in a clumsy pileup of credulity-stretching cataclysmic events.

Film Threat Rick Kisonak

Exceptional performances and unexpected twists of plot keep the story from descending into overwrought melodrama.

Austin Chronicle Marrit Ingman

A sterling example of what Hollywood can accomplish when it puts its trust into an offbeat project whose creative team has a different perspective on American life.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

Exacting but disappointing thriller.

Empire Angie Errigo

There's a desperately inevitable, powerfully tragic last reel, but getting there is absolute torture.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

There's a dignity about it, and it's only later that we come to realize that this dignity is misplaced, born of a fatal reserve and a lack of complete investment.

The New Yorker David Denby

The ineluctable downward pull of absolutely everything in this movie is more exasperating than moving. [12 January 2004, p. 86]

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

In the end, it's just a pointless downer.

Village Voice Ed Park

The clunky manipulations of plot, and the sorry fate awaiting everyone in this foggy House is less wrenching than acted.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Everything about the movie seems excessive to the material. What should have been a small, independent feature without marquee casting -- the story's protagonists, after all, are meant to be the kind of people nobody ever notices.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The first hour is excellent, spinning an ethically and emotionally compelling tale. Narrative logic fades during the second half, though, reducing the movie's impact on every level.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

Grim, sordid and, as it progresses, increasingly dunderheaded.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Folds like a house of cards, collapsing under its own flimsy foundation.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Perleman has little control over his characters; they simply go to pieces in the most ludicrous ways. He has even less control over Kingsley, who soon slips into full-blown Yul Brynner mode.

Slate David Edelstein

This is a movie that sends you out shuddering, chuckling nervously, wanting to tell the people in line for the next show, "It's the feel-bad movie of the year!"

The average user rating for this movie is 7.7 (out of 10) based on 66 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Rita P. gave it a10:
Not often I consider a film a perfect 10 but there is no other score for a film of this quality.

DeWayne P. gave it a10:
Brilliant! Films just don't get better than this.

[Anonymous] gave it an8:
The movie is both tragic, and comedic from a point of view. The Iranian family wound up in defeat, trying to uphold an illusion that was, sadly, never meant to be real. However, it also serves as a parody of the hot housing market, and how things could become completely out of control if we take property values WAY too seriously.

David K gave it an8:
Interesting story. One of the only movies I can remeber at the end feeling genuinely sad (so great acting).

john s gave it a9:
Amazing, captivating, powerful.

felix e gave it a9:
Great movie - just captures you - you realize something terrible is going to happen - a well-done tragedy but a real downer.

Amber S. gave it a 10:
This is one of the first movies in a long time that has hit home for me. I cried and felt so much love and remorse for the characters. I don't really know how to describe it other than the release I truly needed at the point I was at in my life. Thank you for making a wonderful emotion filled voyage for everyone to channel their life into, one way or another.

House of Sand and Fog DreamWorks Distribution LLC

House of Sand and Fog
DreamWorks Distribution LLC