Real estate is in the eye of the beholder, as the contrast between two books-into-film this year illustrates. In "Under the Tuscan Sun," a house bathed in golden light is the catalyst for renewal in "House of Sand and Fog," the mist-enshrouded property is no less a repository for dreams, but becomes its characters' undoing. Helmer Vadim Perelman and co-scripter Shawn Lawrence Otto do a laudable job of distilling Andre Dubus III's powerful and desperately sad novel, emphasizing its noirish sensibility in charting the doomed collision course of two wounded souls, captured in deeply felt performances by Jennifer Connelly and Ben Kingsley.

Subscribe to the Hollywood Reporter and see the entertainment industry from its best angle: the inside looking out. Complete access to real-time news and exclusive analysis that goes behind the scenes from film to television, home video to digital media.

   Subscribe now.