First, the positives: Connelly and Kingsley give excellent performances. The film is well shot and well directed. The glaring weakness is the story (fault either to the writer of the novel or to the screenwriter), which relies on very questionable plot points and reasonably bright people making dumb decision after dumb decision. First, Kathy loses her house due to her own stupidity she chooses not to open mail from the county after she clears up a 'business tax' error. Neglecting her mail leads to her eviction and subsequent auction of the house. Behrani steps in, somehow buys the 174K house for 45K and stands to make a profit for his family, redeeming himself for past failures. Apparently the county keeps the entire 45K when it turns out that Kathy only owes $500 in business tax. The county admits their mistake, but keeps all the money from the sale of the house. (???) Please.
Behrani understandably refuses to sell the house back to the county and tells Kathy that she should sue the county. Kathy refuses to go this route, instead letting her newfound deputy boyfriend Lester (who is married, by the way) go over to the house and attempt to threaten Behrani into selling. Behrani refuses. Lester has to go deal with his angry wife and Kathy assumes that he is gone for good. She has the bright idea to kill herself at the house, but fails twice to do so. Behrani takes her in (instead of just calling an ambulance) and Lester shows up and takes the family hostage. Behrani offers to sell the house back to the county, give the refunded 45K to Kathy and Lester. In exchange, they will put the house back in Behrani's name. Lester agrees and goes with Behrani to the county office to do so. For some contrived reason, Behrani's son, Esmail, goes with them. The three head towards the office, but Esmail decides to steal the gun from Lester and point it at him. Two policemen come up (of course) and tell him to drop the gun. I know even Esmail has seen enough American TV to know better than to swing the gun and point it at the policemen, but he does so anyway and is subsequently shot. He dies and Lester is sent to jail for threatening Behrani. With his son dead, Behrani decides to deal with his grief by poisoning his wife and suffocating himself. The moron that started the whole thing (Kathy) shows up at the house to find the couple dead. She cries and the movie is over. I'm all for non-Hollywood endings but this film was brutal. 5/10 for strong performances and good cinematography.
Behrani understandably refuses to sell the house back to the county and tells Kathy that she should sue the county. Kathy refuses to go this route, instead letting her newfound deputy boyfriend Lester (who is married, by the way) go over to the house and attempt to threaten Behrani into selling. Behrani refuses. Lester has to go deal with his angry wife and Kathy assumes that he is gone for good. She has the bright idea to kill herself at the house, but fails twice to do so. Behrani takes her in (instead of just calling an ambulance) and Lester shows up and takes the family hostage. Behrani offers to sell the house back to the county, give the refunded 45K to Kathy and Lester. In exchange, they will put the house back in Behrani's name. Lester agrees and goes with Behrani to the county office to do so. For some contrived reason, Behrani's son, Esmail, goes with them. The three head towards the office, but Esmail decides to steal the gun from Lester and point it at him. Two policemen come up (of course) and tell him to drop the gun. I know even Esmail has seen enough American TV to know better than to swing the gun and point it at the policemen, but he does so anyway and is subsequently shot. He dies and Lester is sent to jail for threatening Behrani. With his son dead, Behrani decides to deal with his grief by poisoning his wife and suffocating himself. The moron that started the whole thing (Kathy) shows up at the house to find the couple dead. She cries and the movie is over. I'm all for non-Hollywood endings but this film was brutal. 5/10 for strong performances and good cinematography.