House of Sand of Fog

The latest Netflix journal entry! I really liked this film, far more than I expected to. I knew I would like Ben Kingsley, and thought that Jennifer Connelly would probably be good, but I was blown away by all the performances. I was grooving right along with the tone of the film, a classic tale of seemingly equal legal and moral claims on something — in this case a small, dilapidated house on the California coast — right up to the end, which I initially thought to be a bit over-wrought. Then, having seen Don Giovanni the night before at the Met, I realized that this film, especially the ending, is best viewed as opera, actually. An American opera with no music. Four stars.