Paul Haggis's one-sided coin: the flip side of the sentimental view of diversity.
In House of Sand and Fog (2003), Kathy (Jennifer Connelly), a young, recovering addict, loses a house she inherited from her father because she's too depressed to open her mail and so doesn't see a final demand for taxes (which turn out to have been improperly assessed). Behrani (Ben Kingsley), an Iranian immigrant who was a military muck-a-muck under the Shah but who now works on a road crew in the U.S., buys the house cheap from the government in order to sell it dear and get back on an upper-class, if commercial, footing. Kathy and her attorney make it known to Behrani how much the house means to her and how unjust its seizure was in the first place, but Behrani won't sell it back. Prosperity is too essential to Behrani's dignity, especially since he's been pretending all along to be well-off to his daughter's in-laws. Kathy manages to get a disaffected married cop on her side; the cop then tries to get rough with Behrani and things get fatally out of hand. Behrani's son is accidentally killed, which drives him to kill his own wife and then himself.…
Article comments
26 - Alan Dale
Thanks for the comment, Eileene. Sometimes it seems as if well-meaning people like Haggis are actually nostalgic for the bad old days before the Civil Rights Movement had produced the changes that clear-sighted people see all around, from the local supermarket to the President's Cabinet. I guess their nostalgia is based in a longing for an era when they imagine they'd feel no uncertainty about having right on their side. To me, celebrating the Civil Rights Movement is entirely bound up with celebrating its success in transforming the way we live. "Serious" Hollywood is on the same wavelength as the news media that equate news with bad news and think that good news is not news at all.
27 - Stewart MacGregor
You will all enjoy the movie much more if you see the "message" as a mere vehicle for the structure, rather than the much more typical situation of the structure being a vehicle for the message. My interest in racism or diversity is very limited, but I found it a thrilling experience in film. Regardless of the intent of Paul Haggis, it's really a Rubik's cube.
28 - Alan Dale
Thanks for the comment, Stewart. I agree, and that was why I ended the review talking about Haggis's moviemaking, which is way above the quality of his writing. In my review, the bad news was the content, the good news was his style. All the same, why couldn't both be of equal quality? You don't have to choose between the style and content with Martin Scorsese at his best (i.e., Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, Last Temptation of Christ).
29 - Movie Fan
There's another cool film coming out in the Fall '06 called 'The Genius Club' which should really having people talking.
Anyone hear of it?
30 - Hans
Scott and Alan: I'm quite sure that the snow in the end symbolizes, that you never know what will/can happen. everything is uncertain and everything is coincidence.