Poop Shute

I said goddamn! Grandparents rule!
 
I went to visit mine today, and had an ordeal with a new tv.
 
I'll spare you the excruciating details, but just know that my grandparents like to yell and scream
 
ALOT.
 
Remember George Costanza's parents on Seinfeld?
 
Bingo.
 
After The TV Incident my grandpa insisted on buying me a load of groceries and stuffing a crisp twenty dollar bill in my hand for gas.
 
Sweet.
 
House Of Sand And Fog
 
Tonight Brian, Kiki, and I watched this heart-wrenching film.
 
Wow.
 
It's a drama about a woman (Jennifer Connelly) who gets screwed by the state government. Somehow Big Brother mistakenly thinks she owes loads of back business taxes, so they seize and auction off the house she grew up in. The house that her Dad left her in his will. An Iranian immigrant (Ben Kingsley) comes along and swoops it up in an attempt to save his financially crippled family.
 
The chaos ensues.
 
This movie was beautifully shot. The director takes advantage of the weather whenever possible and shows it off very well.
 
Connelly and Kingsley are nothing short of amazing in their respective performances.
 
Ron Eldard kind of phones it in, but then again... he is Ron Eldard. Not that he's terrible, but he's just kind of bland.
 
The pacing is fairly slow, but there's really no other way to tell this kind of story.
 
It's interesting too because you get to see both sides of the story with complete objectivity. I've found that generally people, myself included tend to like to root for one side or the other in movies or in any entertainment for that matter. We like a mean and nasty villain to "boo" at, and we like a clean-cut hero with glinting, white teeth. This movie doesn't give you that.
 
On one side we see alcoholic Connelly sleeping with a married, shady cop (Eldard) and manipulating him into using intimidation tactics on Kingsley.
 
On the other side we see Kingsley lying to his son and wife about Connelly's circumstances. Neither character is completely likeable... but not completely unlikeable either. I found it impossible to root for either side, and without that personal stake in the story I found it easy to sit back and watch the darker side of these people unfold in front of me.
 
Actually, if anybody is the villain here it's clearly the bureaucrats who unlawfully seized the house in the first place.
 
Jack-asses.
 
I won't give away any details, but later in the movie Kingsly whips out some BIG chops. Don't get me wrong, he's brilliant throughout the film, but near the end he takes it to a new level with some very small gestures that just bring his character to full on breathing-walking-talking life.

Overall, I would give this movie a 4 out of 5 poops.
 
I would give it 5, except that it was so emotional, so filled to the brim with pain that I don't think I could ever watch it again.
 
5's are reserved for the films I could watch again and again.