MovieChat Forums > House of Sand and Fog (2004) Discussion > Should have been titled "Mixed Nuts" (s...

Should have been titled "Mixed Nuts" (spoiler alerts)

posted 5 years ago by DaveBowman2001 (467)
2 replies | jump to latest

I haven't watched this since it was in the theater. Watched it again tonight. I couldn't remember everything about it, but damn every character was a basket case. For some reason I thought it was older like late 90s release.

The whole premise of the house being seized over $500 is just ridiculous. The stupid cop could have saved himself a lot of trouble by just paying off the $500 himself in the first place, rather than the way things turned out. He would have white knighted himself some pussy. How pathetic. Took me right out of the movie (That was one thing I remembered). Bureaucrats are loathsome, but cmon...they would have just worked something out or put a lien. Some cities have more than that in outstanding parking tickets and they don't seize your car..just put a boot on it.

But then then the characters are unsympathetic idiots. "I didn't open my mail". Puuhhlease. Also, home aren't just seized and sold overnight. If this dumb bitch (gorgeous) could afford living in a hotel, buying booze, cigarettes, she could have paid the $500 or just straightened things out. Plus the house would have gone to bid, not just the first low ball offer that came in. Put a $4000 deck on the house and sell it for 4x what you paid....in what world? Not to mention he was too cheap to get a realtor.

I just find it a peculiar choice (didn't read the book). Why not make it a bit more substantial like $10,000 or more?

All these people die over a so so house with a view. The Berhani's apartment looked much nicer....but then again he was a flipper.

I could go on picking apart the movie....6.5 mostly due to Connely's acting and Deakins cinematography. We don't really learn what makes all these characters so crazy either. Maybe the house has a curse. Cheap Hollywood tricks with no depth.

[–] chilidoggg (13005) 3 years ago

Good post. This is why I couldn't finish it. A ridiculous setup.

Also:

She doesn't have $500 available credit on her credit card?

Jennifer Connelly was born December 1970, so she would have been... 31?... when filmed. I don't know how old her character was supposed to be, but even mid 20's you're opening your mail.

They tried to plain her down some but she's just too damn good looking, as mentioned elsewhere.

Ben Kingsley keeping an accounting for his candy bar and now he's got... $60k cash to buy that house? or was it $24k? The layers of absurdity.

Why doesn't the mom have the house? Where is the brother? I thought mom said that he's a super salesman. Also, if his name is on the title, he would also be getting notices for the taxes and liens.

[–] KBiker (764) 3 years ago

The whole premise of the house being seized over $500 is just ridiculous.

True, and the way the house was sold off at auction is not the way it happens. The process can take months.

The stupid cop could have saved himself a lot of trouble by just paying off the $500 himself in the first place, rather than the way things turned out.

Not true. The house had already been put up for auction when he first showed up with the guy from the county, and it was sold before he ever found out about it. But he did act more than stupidly from that point on.

If this dumb bitch (gorgeous) could afford living in a hotel, buying booze, cigarettes, she could have paid the $500 or just straightened things out.

She knew she didn't owe the $500, and she believed she had straightened it out by going to the county office and telling them their mistake. She also had a notarized letter to that effect. That was shown in the first interview she had with the female lawyer. For the same reason, she hadn't opened her mail because she thought the whole mess was settled. Dumb, on her part, but she was in a depressed state over her husband abruptly leaving her.

I could go on picking apart the movie....6.5 mostly due to Connely's acting and Deakins cinematography.

I thought Connelly's acting was adequate, but the cinematography, especially the effects of fog rolling over the hills in fast motion, was great. That and the haunting score went a long was to giving this movie the mood of inevitability it had.

Additional note: Andre Dubus III had over 100 offers from studios and filmmakers for an adaptation of his novel, which followed the plot of the movie point by point until the ending sequence when Behrani returned to the house, after viewing his son's body in the hospital morgue. So the power of the novel, and hence the movie, must have far outweighed the few flaws you pointed out.