She views Massoud as a thief and calls him that to his face. Kathy, however, has lost all that matters to her. As far as he's concerned, he has legally purchased the house and is guilty of nothing other than trying to make a better life for his family. The problem is, of course, that Massoud's opportunity comes at Kathy's expense. By making some improvements and re-selling it at market value, he can raise the cash to buy another house and have enough left over to fund his son's college education. Buying Kathy's house gives him an opportunity to plan for the future. He ended up in California, eking out an existence, working two menial jobs to make ends meet. But, when the ruler was deposed, Massoud was forced to flee for his life. In his native Iran, Massoud was a high-profile air force colonel who personally knew the Shah. The buyer is Massoud Amir Behrani (Ben Kingsley), an immigrant who moved to the United States a number of years ago with his wife, Nadi (Shohreh Aghdashloo), and his son, Esmail (Jonathan Ahdout). Things happen so quickly that she doesn't have time to hire a lawyer before the property has been sold at a fraction of the going market rate. The county evicts her from her house and puts it up for auction. A bureaucratic snafu has resulted in her being held liable for unpaid taxes that she doesn't owe. All she has in the world is the house left to her by her father when he died, and now that is being taken away. Kathy Nicolo (Jennifer Connelly) is a recovering drug addict who has recently been dumped by her husband and left to fend for herself. The dilemma faced by the characters in Vadim Perelman's stunning feature debut is that a small, semi-isolated Pacific county bungalow is a lot more than just bricks and mortar to all of them. And for a few, it's much more than any of those things - it's a key to identity and a link to the past. For still others, it's a place of refuge, comfort, and familiarity. For others, it's an investment - a means to build for the future with an eye to retirement. It fails to sustain a sense of tragic inevitability and that prevents it from being truly involving.What happens when the so-called American Dream - a life of financial independence and home ownership - turns into the American Nightmare? For some, a house is just a place to stop and rest at night. Bahrani are all superb, and the adaptation of the award-winning book is a thoughtful and serious, if uneven, translation of the book's language and tone. But the fairy tale becomes a nightmare.Ĭonnelly, Kingsley, Ron Eldard as the cop who evicts Kathy, and Shohreh Aghdashloo as Mrs. She wakes up the next morning in the house, swathed in silks like an Arabian nights princess. The Behrani family alternately treats Kathy as an intruder, a guest, and ultimately almost as a member of the family when they take her in at her most devastated and care for her as though she was a child. Behrani's devotion to his children parallels Kathy's loss of her father and the house he left to her when he died, as well as her own longing for a child. Both are too proud to tell their families the truth about their situations. Both must take on menial jobs and change their clothes in public bathrooms. The lives of Kathy and Behrani circle, parallel, and intersect each other. Pride, anger, loss, desperation, law, love, strength, and weakness collide to create vast tragedy in this contemplative story of a battle for a house that overlooks the water. But she cannot do that without destroying the lives of other people. Kathy must return to the house to be healed. For Kathy and Behrani the fight is not about money it is about home. He plans to sell the house at a profit to start his return to a position consistent with his education and ability. For him, buying the house will make it possible for him to quit his construction job. The buyer is an immigrant, an Iranian colonel named Behrani (Ben Kingsley), who has spent almost all of his savings to maintain a lifestyle that enabled his daughter to marry well. Because she did not respond, the county evicts her and auctions the house for a fraction of its value. She has retreated so completely that she has not read her mail, which included an erroneous notice of an overdue tax bill. Following the breakup of her marriage, Kathy (Jennifer Connelly) retreats to her house - the house her father left her and her brother in his will.
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