Film Review: House of Sand and Fog

House of Sand and Fog is guilty of one major flaw: its mistaken assumption that tragedy alone makes for good drama. What should have been a profound and real humanistic exploration instead turns toward petty and illogical human conflicts to illustrate the crux of the drama. That the latter takes precedence would indicate a depiction of tragedy simply for the sake of tragedy, without a subtext of ethical questioning that ought to have been examined even if not resolved.

The movie adheres to a "realism" genre method that presents but does not opine nor judge. Yet it does not carry that model across to its characters for whom it shamefully asks our sympathy. What we end up with is a bewildering sequence of contrived plot advances as we witness characters participating in a script of thoughtlessly unprobed motives and behaviors meant to elicit empathy but ultimately find the movie emptyhanded emotionally. (There even exists a supporting character whose sole purpose in the film seems to be to personify that very unfavorable quality of the script.)

Not all is a loss though. The mere presence of two worthy Oscar recipients, Ben Kingsley and Jennifer Connelly, in the lead roles all but guarantees a capable performance in the finer points of dialogue and emotion, though the actors must still work with the limitations of poor scripting. They actually manage to bring some appearance of depth to otherwise flat characters, a marvel considering the obviousness of the film's other actors' ineffectiveness regardless of importance or screentime.

The movie's main admirable quality, however, is how it comes engagingly close to being a subtle behavioral study on subjective morality. However, it never insinuates such a theoretical framework enough to make it clear as having been the aim of the original script. The film's frustrating inability to reach a higher artistic echelon is in large part due to this confusion of conveyance, or perhaps even of purpose: we see actions without true consequence, consequences without true rationale, and a movie without true meaning.

Score: 6.5