FOGGY BOTTOM
by Christopher Campbell

Ben Kingsley is not just a good actor. He has the face of a legend. His tone and features contribute to his ability to hide inside a character so well that, even though he is always recognizable as Ben Kingsley because of his face, we forget just what background the actor actually hails from. (Watching his succession of movie roles is intriguing: is he Indian or British or Jewish or a combination of many things?)

In House of Sand and Fog, directed by Vadim Perelman and based on a novel by Andre Dubus III, Kingsley plays Colonel Massoud Amir Behrani, an Iranian immigrant who has, since coming to America, “worked like an Arab” in order to buy a home for his family. He purchases, with cash, a house up for auction by the county and decides that he will turn around and sell it for a hefty profit rather than continue living there. The house was seized by the county from Kathy (Jennifer Connelly) a recovering alcoholic house cleaner who didn’t bother to read her mail regarding a business tax she wasn’t aware she owed. She hires a lawyer (Frances Fisher) in order to sue those at fault, but has no luck. She befriends and falls in love with a cop named Lester Burdon (Ron Eldard) who also tries to help her out, but he just makes things worse for both of them.

Each character has an agenda that makes sense, although they each display a different kind of selfishness. Behrani wants to live the American dream. Kathy wants the house back that she grew up in and inherited from her late father. The cop, Lester, wants to make Kathy happy because he likes sleeping with her instead of his wife. Writer-director Vadim Perelman seems to think that the portrayal of realistic characters is based on giving them faults. The film is honorable in the way it doesn't take sides, but unfortunately the characters are annoying, stupid, and heartless. Behrani hits his wife and aggressively puts his hands on Kathy when removing her from his property. Kathy begins drinking again. Lester tells of not losing sleep when planting evidence, has no qualms about drinking in front of Kathy, and leaves his wife because she’s his best friend instead of a lover.

By the end of the film, The House of Sand and Fog becomes one of the most distended tragedies since Monster's Ball. Kingsley becomes the only reason to watch it. Connelly gives us her desperate eyes, but her character is so pathetic that it's too painful to watch. Eldard exhibits one of the worst performances of the year, and becomes one of the major burdens (pun intended) on the movie as a whole. He doesn't convey a single believable moment in his character’s life. There are certainly times when horrible people make for great characters (Kingsley will forever be memorable as the loud gangster in Sexy Beast). But there is absolutely nothing interesting about watching people ruin their lives in pseudo-melodramatic fashion.

Animation has been in an unfortunate downswing for a while now, relying more on technological advancement than creative achievement. Even the Oscar for animated short is often based on craft rather than art. But Sylvain Chomet's The Triplets of Belleville, though made partially with computer animation, does not draw undue attention to how it was made. It's an old-fashioned cinematic treat, and certainly one of the greatest surprises of the year.

Drawn with a sketchy, water-colored lumpiness that has a remarkably beautiful effect, the film tells of an old woman in search of her kidnapped son, a champion bicyclist. He, along with two others, was taken straight from the Tour de France by the French Mafia, for a purpose that has to be seen to be understood. The woman ventures out from Paris with her old dog, across the sea to Belleville, which appears to be a caricature of New York. There she meets up with three elderly triplets, known as the jazz act The Triplets of Belleville, and they aid her in the rescue.

The film is difficult to describe. None of the characters have names, and there's hardly any dialogue. There are bits here and there, mostly in French without subtitles, but the only language we really need is cinematic and musical. The visuals never attempt outright gags, except for a prologue showcasing the Triplets in an old black and white film that plays like an early Silly Symphony . In one scene, for instance, the woman and her dog are following behind a large ocean liner in their paddleboat. A whale then rises up beneath them, without talking or creating a laugh, or really doing anything aside from being a whale -- yet the shot manages to be more magical and beautiful than anything in recent Disney animation. The movie is funny, yes, but never forcefully. Laughs and smiles arise from moments as simple as a dog barking at a passing train, or the appearance of a little man who looks and squeaks like a mouse. These are things that may not be funny to everyone, but neither do you feel that they have to be funny, in contrast to the forced quality of the usual comedies.

Triplets is the feature debut of Chomet, who lost the Oscar for animated short in 1998 to a Pixar film. This year another Pixar is favored to win for animated feature. Finding Nemo, a fine movie, although overrated, also tells of the search for a lost son. It relies on vocal humor and cheap visual gags to tell its story. Aside from the nice computer generated visuals, much of Nemo can be enjoyed with eyes closed. The Triplets of Belleville is a perfectly directed animated film that can only be enjoyed, save for a few ingenious musical numbers, with wide eyes. It may just be the most inventive and imaginative film you see in some time.

©2004 Christopher Campbell
CineScene