House of Sand and Fog

i'm supposed to be sleeping right now, waking up later at 5am for the england vs portugal friendly. I tossed n turned for over an hour n i simply give up trying to zzz... hope i'll be able to tahan till 7, tt's whn the match ends...

caught House of Sand and Fog just now... definately betta thn mystic river, except, the censored part... i hate censored movies!!! well, its adapted from a novel n its abt everyone making mistakes n losing everything in the end.

story goes like this: kathy (Jennifer Connelly) was wrongly evicted. her husband left her 8 months ago n for the past 8 months she did not check her mails frequently (mistake 1). she was billed a few hundred bucks worth of business tax n she doesn't have a biz at all. but she did seek help to get the taxman off her back. n as she doesn't check her mails frequently, she din know the case wasn't quite done over wif. so, the county decided to evict her cos she did not pay the taxes. but the county did not know she did not owned a biz (mistake 2).

then she met lester (Ron Eldard) on the day of eviction. he's a sherieff, policeman kinda n they fell in love. kathy sought legal assistance to get back the house n learnt tt it was already sold to a retired colonel behrani (Ben Kingsley), an iranian immigrant. behrani wanted to sell the house for 174K, 4 times the price he bought the house for.

when lester knew abt it, he threatened (mistake 3) colonel behrani, to sell the house back to the county, so the legal pple can sue the county n get the house back for kathy. however, behrani went to the internal affairs for help n identified lester.

meanwhile, lester n kathy stayed in a friend's log cabin kinda place. he told kathy tt he needed to go away for a few hours to explain matters wif his wife. (he had stopped loving her many years ago.) while at his home, explaining matters, the internal affairs guy called lester to the office. so lester had no choice but to go n did not tell kathy abt it (mistake 4).

kathy waited for a very long time n tot tt lester was gone for good, back to his wife's arms. so she went to a kiosk, bought drinks, ciggys, n petroleum as she wanted to kill herself. after she topped up the plastic container wif petroleum she opened the boot n found a pistol. she left the petroleum at the kiosk.

she drove back to he old house, drank n tried to shoot herself but the pistol was not loaded. behrani heard her crying outside n saw wht was happening. he carried her into the house n together wif his wife, thy took care of her. meanwhile, lester got back to the lag cabin place n found kathy missing. his next instinct was to go to the house to look for her.

while lester was driving up to the house, kathy went to the bathroom to vomit due to the drinks. behrani's wife, nadi (Shohreh Aghdashloo) told kathy to take a bath to relax. in there, kathy found nadi's pills (mistake 5, nadi, knowing she is disturbed should have taken out the pills). she swallowed 20 tabs. nadi went on the check on her n found her unconcious. she forced kathy to empty her stomach. wif help from her husband, thy were trying to help kathy to the room while lester arrived. he loaded the gun n saw kathy very weak. he tot the family was trying to harm her.

he locked the family in the toilet while kathy rested in the room. the next morning, he made a deal wif behrani which would c them getting a sum of money while behrani gets to keep the house. thy drove to the county to sign papers. as he turned behrani against a wall (mistake 6), he remind him of wht he should do, behrani's son, Esmail (Jonathan Ahdout) took lester's gun for self defence (mistake 7). police arrived n shot esmail as he refused to drop the gun.

esmail died n behrani killed his wife n himself. meanwhile, lester was locked up for threats (i guess) n kathy was all alone again.

for the mistakes behrani made, he lost his life, his wife n his son n the 174K. issit a mistake for behrani wanting a good life for his family?

lester, in bid to help kathy, lost his freedom. kathy, in the quest to get back the house her dad left her, lost her bf n i guess, a bit of her "liang zhi", almost her life n her senses. issit a mistake for kathy, for being so insistent tt she wants to get back a house which her dad paid for 30 years?

this novel tells us something: in order to get something u want, u may directly or indirectly do hurt to another. n at the end of it, issit worth all that trouble?