"I don't care how good your posture is, this is still my house."

Bad things can happen to good people. It's true. And, not to blame the victim or anything, but sometimes they even bring it on themselves. An error in judgment, a moment of carelessness, a loss of temper . . . all can have unforeseen, irreparable consequences. Pick up the paper, it happens every day.

Such is the case in House of Sand and Fog, which stars Academy Award winners Jennifer Connelly and Ben Kingsley as two people who each desperately need the same house. Kathy, a recovering addict paralyzed with depression after being left by her husband, owns the house but is evicted for failing to pay a wrongly-assessed business tax. Behrani, an Iranian immigrant and former colonel in the Shah's army, works two menial jobs to give his family the illusion of the genteel lifestyle they left behind. He buys the house at auction for a fraction of its value and sees it as an investment, and a way to reclaim some of the power and dignity he's lost.

Add to the mix Ron Eldard as Lester, a married Sheriff's deputy who wants to be Kathy's knight in shining armor and you have three people doomed by their own choices and the choices of others. (By the way, that whole "doomed" thing isn't really a spoiler; you know right from the start that something has gone horribly wrong, you just don't know what.)

"I know you don't want to do Hulk 2, but we could really use the money."

House of Sand and Fog does at least two things that are extremely difficult to pull off. First: it creates a believable, compelling conflict in which there is no clear-cut hero or villain. You can sympathize with both Kathy and Behrani. Kathy was wronged, yet the whole problem could have been avoided if she had simply opened her mail and done something about it. She is pitiable but frustrating, unable to get herself out of the mess she's in, or to stop pulling other people in with her. She's like the anti-George Bailey: her life touches so many other lives, all of which go straight to hell.

Behrani is stern and unlikable, but has done nothing wrong except, perhaps, refuse to bend for the sake of a stranger. Who among us would? His flaw is his unwillingness to compromise. As for Lester, he wants to help Kathy but ends up encouraging her self-destructive tendencies because it would feel so good to save her. All three characters have moments when, through stubbornness or a total lack of understanding of another person, they make the situation worse. All three also have moments when they show humanity and compassion.

The second thing the film does is construct a relentless and plausible chain of events that builds inevitably from one to the next. Like a dripping faucet of tragedy, each action contributes to the erosion of these characters' lives. No single event causes disaster, but one leads to another which leads to another and before the characters know it, they've missed all their chances to make things right.

"Keep walkin', Gandhi."

Director Vadim Perelman (who, with Shawn Lawrence Otto adapted the novel by Andre Dubus III) has crafted a film rich in mood and texture. Roger Deakins's stunning cinematography draws the audience into the beauty of the Northern California landscape and the thoughtful, meditative pacing gives us time to consider the fragility of the characters' lives and absorb the impact of their actions.

Connelly could have perhaps been a little grittier as the luckless Kathy, but her downcast eyes and trembling voice help us understand her as a woman who's disappointed herself all her life. Kingsley is phenomenal as the tightly wound Behrani. With the smallest of glances or a certain set of the shoulders, he becomes this man who is trying desperately to reclaim what once was his.

House of Sand and Fog can be a difficult movie to watch. Disturbing on a number of levels, slowly paced, offering little in the way of hope, it's not a happy-maker. But it never feels less than true, and if you're willing to go with it, this human-scale tragedy can be just as absorbing as some of the epics competing for your box-office dollars.

Gorilla Pants rating: 3.5 out of 4 bananas