Even the combined can-do forces of House Doctor's Ann Maurice and Location Location Location's Kirstie and Phil would be at a loss to sort this one out.

Recovering alcoholic Kathy (Connelly) finds her home reclaimed by the state and auctioned for a pittance following a bureaucratic bungle by the local authority.

The new owner - Massoud Behrani (Kingsley) - sees the house as the fulfilment of the American dream he's been chasing since escaping Iran after the fall of the Shah.

As the battle for ownership escalates, an increasingly desperate Kathy finds unlikely support in the form of local deputy sheriff Lester Burdon (Eldard).

This is essentially the corruscating tale of damaged people weakened by addiction, pride, insecurity and distrust driven to desperate lengths.

Kathy is a victim of the bottle, driven to drink by her partner's desertion and scarcely credulous of the loss of the house her father worked 30 years to buy.

Behrani is crippled by pride, a former colonel in the Iranian airforce reduced to working as a roadmender yet retaining the arrogance of the ruling class.

Joining the vicious circle is Eldard, a basically decent man trapped in a loveless marriage and whose dangerous devotion to Kathy leads to tragedy.

However, the real villain of the piece is the faceless bureaucracy which screwed up the reclamation in the first place yet is content to hide behind the gruellingly slow process of the law.

The emotional punch, when it comes, hits you with the force of a juggernaut and leave you gasping for air through an ocean of tears.

However, its power is almost immediately diluted by some flaky dialogue which sees the plot teetering on the brink of overblown melodrama.

Although set in California, this has a totally un-American movie feel about it largely thanks to the direction of Ukrainian first-timer Vadim Perelman.

Based on the novel by Andre Dubus, which made it to Oprah Winfrey's Book Club, you can see the attraction to America's most sympathetic listener.

A clash of cultures, evily intransigent bureaucracy and the souring of the American dream make for uncomfortable yet compelling viewing.

Tim Evans