House Of Sand and Fog

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald rating: * * *)

This adaptation of the Oprah-approved Andrew Dubus III bestseller might have earned Oscar acting nominations for Kingsley and Aghdashioo as an Iranian husband and wife whose American dream turns nightmare. But their performances can't save House of Sand and Fog getting caught in its own mire.

Its story covers race politics, prejudice, starting your life over again and - most dangerous of all - real estate. But it's a ponderous film which mistakes a painstaking pace for depth - not helped by frequent time-lapse shots of the weather to help fill in time and remind us of its setting. Or not - those scenes frequently have fog rolling across San Francisco Bay, but the story itself is set somewhere unspecified in northern California.

Kingsley once again shows his ethnic adaptability, playing Behrani, a former colonel in the Shah of Iran's air force, but there is a distracting showiness to his broken English.

The accent may well be spot on, but his loudly mangled consonants suck the oxygen out of many a scene, inspiring unintentional mirth at inappropriate times.

The imperious Behrani has been reduced to working on a road construction crew while keeping his family in a lavish apartment they can't afford.

Finding a modest house with a view of the Pacific up for a repossession auction, he sees it as redemption for the holiday home he once had on the Caspian Sea while still in the Shah's employ, and a chance to get his son through college by doing it up and selling it.

However, the house was the home of recovering alcoholic Kathy (Connelly) who, having spent the best part of the past year in bed after a marriage break-up, has been evicted over $500 in unpaid business taxes, despite never having had a business.

She loses patience as she goes about proving the auction was a bureaucratic bungle, and is encouraged by a sympathetic but racist cop (Ron Eldard) who is all too keen to confront Behrani and his family while inveigling his way into Kathy's affections.

No, Connelly doesn't exactly resemble someone whose life has hit rock-bottom.

But she's at least believable as her desperation to get what's hers turns to a dangerous obsession.

If his cast has helped him create engaging and sympathetic characters from tough material, then debuting director Perelman undoes much of their good work, with stilted storytelling then by cranking up the melodrama in the final act. That it will all end in tears has been telegraphed early on, but it is no less harrowing for knowing that inevitability. However, its flaws make House of Sand and Fog sit at the intersection of grimly engaging drama and endurance test.

Cast: Jennifer Connelly, Ben Kingsley, Shoreh Aghdashioo

Director: Vadim Perelman

Rating: R16 (violence, sex scenes, suicide)

Running time: 127 mins

Screening: Village Queen St, Rialto, Bridgeway cinemas