If by Sand you mean Bland and Fog you mean Predictable. This movie is based on a book which is based on a kinda-sorta real event. A perfect example of something odd that happens in real life and you think, “wow, that would make a great movie.” And it never does. In the case of this movie, no one is likable. You can choose between the racist cop abandoning his wife, the ditsy woman too stupid to open her mail or the conservative man who slaps his wife. You wanna spend two hours trying to empathize with this group? The look and feel is pure Hollywood, so it isn’t like they’re anti-heroes or anything. It’s just a warped movie for a warped culture. God, the more I think about this movie, the more it offends me. Added: just checked the imdb and turns out there are a lot of people who claim not to like “these sorts of movies” jumping up and down over how brilliant this is. What I think is happening here is that there are a lot of people who normally only see blockbusters watched this because Jennifer Connely is in it. These people are out there yearning for interesting character dramas but they just aren’t being marketed to them. (Example of what I am talking about: “I didn’t care much for Ben Kingsley in ‘Ghandi,’ an overpraised movie in my opinion [I mean, how can you award an Oscar in costume design to a movie in which everyone is wearing white diapers?], but he definitely deserves accolades for this performance.”) “House of Sand and Fog” is pap masquerading as something original. The truth is, it is completely by-the-numbers, straight out of the “All My Children” playbook. There’s even one guy online convinced this movie is a parable about the Israeli/Palestinian confilct. And, hell, maybe it is. . .but a very pedestrian one at that.