Life as a House (DVD, 2002)

This film is one of the most touching, heartfelt films that I've seen lately. This movie made me laugh, cry, & appreciate life more. You soon find that your emotions are being controlled by these people since you relate so closely to all the characters. This film will allow you to help re-evaluate your life in a positive direction. It shows that life is fleeting & that relationships are much more important than computers, money, or quick thrills.

Gratefully, the story is as strong today as it was a decade ago.

Although the film may have been missed or overlooked, it seldom gives the impression to new viewers that it is underrated or out of touch.

The story goes like this: George Monroe (Kevin Kline) is an aging architect who's life is unfulfilled. His ex-wife Robin (Kristin Scott Thomas) has married another man & has a family of her own. George's son Sam (Hayden Christensen) hates his parents and just wants to be alone. One day George is fired from his job of 20 years. Understandably, he's not happy about this and he destroys all of the models that he's created. He takes one undamaged one and leaves, only to have health problems and collapse outside. While at the hospital, George is told that he has cancer and is expected to live for another four months or so. George, having a new outlook on life, wants to spend the summer with Sam and fulfill George's dream: to build a house together. Sam has problems of his own, though: he is constantly pressured to prostitute himself for his friend Josh (Ian Somerhalder). Sam does all sort drugs including inhalants. He is extremely anti-social, and emotionally cut off from everybody and everything. Sam wants to spend the summer getting wasted with his friend, however George has better plans. George is determined to complete his dream and forces Sam to go with stay with him. Sam hates spending time with his father, especially since they live in a one bedroom garage next to the house they are tearing down to soon rebuild. While there Sam meets neighbor Colleen (Mary Steenburgen) & her daughter Alyssa (Jena Malone), which helps his stay a bit more interesting. Meanwhile, George has not told anyone that he is going to die, not even Sam or Robin. For the next couple of months, George attempts to bond with his estranged son who finally complete his dream house while George lays dying in the hospital.

The acting is rich and down-to-earth. The characters are realistically portrayed and could be anybody in real life. Kevin Kline's performance is unfortunately overlooked. Kline gives his character his all, and most importantly, sympathy. The rest of the diverse cast are great, with Hayden Christensen portraying Sam with extreme honesty and realism.

The writing and directing are extraordinary. Mark Andrus and Irwin Winkler are great in their respective jobs. Everything about this film is intentionally placed where it needs to be to drive your emotions to their limits, yet always seems to bring you back to the same point of care about the people.

It's extremely funny that I had a pretty good idea about what George was about to do at his workplace. I'm usually pretty good about the intuition thing. The driving emotive elements seem to be perfectly placed in order to create an air of solid walls of failure and disappointment along with triumph and joy. Their vulnerabilities are in the open & they deal with each other as best they can. Kline's son is confused about more than his sexuality; far more.

This movie has several good things going for it: a top-notch performance from Kevin Kline, an engaging performance by Jena Malone, and a pretty good script. Having said that, I have to also say that this movie has one huge strike against it, which is the over-the-top, not-even-close-to-believable performance of Hayden Christensen. Throughout the movie, Young Skywalker...err...I mean, Christensen has only two moods that he demonstrates: disinterested, slacker punk or angry, screaming slacker punk. Neither one of those moods is something he does well. One could reasonably ask what, precisely, Mr. C does do well as an actor, but that is another issue.

Back to the good stuff. Kline turns in his normal, stellar performance. He is a top, Hollywood performer and his work always carries the ring of truth and honesty. That is very true here. Few actors on the contemporary scene are as consistently good as Kline. He never disappoints and he always makes each role his own, in one way or another. Malone is very engaging as the girl next door who has a crush on the aforementioned character of Christensen. Whatever credibility exists in the scenes she has with H.C., it is Miss Malone that brings that credibility with her.

I have never been a big fan of Kristin Scott Thomas and this movie does nothing to change that. She has always struck me as being rather stiff and plastic on screen and that trend continues. She is not bad, but she really doesn't bring anything interesting or unique to her character of Kline's remarried ex-wife. There are a hundred actresses in Hollywood who could have filled this role with EXACTLY the same performance she turned in.

Earlier, I did refer to the script as being, "pretty good" which is far from a ringing endorsement. The script does get a little heavy-handed in an effort to be poignant: dramatic tends toward the maudlin. But, despite the director's attempts to elicit tears from you (one is tempted to quote Malcolm X and say that those tears are sought through any means necessary) the basic story is engaging and offers Kline, Malone and Mary Steenburgen room to create characters with some depth and life. While the rest of the cast did not live up to that script, the fault does not lie on the pages themselves.

So, it is a movie with a good number of strengths, a couple of glaring faults, with a nice story and a bit of a predictable ending. A good date movie, one that is pretty enjoyable and one I have recommended to a couple of friends. See it, buy it. You can certainly find many worse ways to spend money these days and, unfortunately, not that many better ways to spend it.

i absolutley love this movie. i never really got the chance to spend time like this with my dad before he died. it is the story of a man named george who works making modles of houses for an architect. George is set in his ways and refuses to use computers to make his modles because he likes the 3-d look of the actual modles. After having worked there for 20 years he is fired. George then procedes to destroy every modle he made for the company after he was denied the right to take a few with him that were really special. After destroying his modles George passes out. He later wakes up in a hospital where we find out that he has terminal cancer and he has at most four months to live. He decides that he is going to fulfill his lifelong dream of tearing down the ocean-front shack he lives in and build the home of his dreams. Also, he wants his son who is struggiling with problems with drugs and percieved sexuality to help him and to reconnect. After changing his life as well as the lives of all those around him George dies and leaves the house to his son who in turn gives the house to a paralized woman whos mother was killed in a car crash with his grandfather who was driving drunk. Altogether this is an amazing movie that is sure to touch you.

I can't think of many movies that were as good as this one, as well acted as this one. Hayden Christensen was amazing, probably his best work ever. Kevin Kline did some of his best work, as well as Kristin Scott Thomas. It's takes you through Kline's last months as he is dying of cancer, though none of his family knows it until very late in the film. Christensen plays his estranged son who is into drugs and hates his father, but is forced to live with him for the summer, his father's last. They build a house together and the what htey do with it is amazing. Buy this movie, you won't be disappointed.

Life as a House is one of the best movies I've seen. I'm fairly picky about what I like in movies, especially dramas. Some are so over-the-top with emotion that it's almost cheesy. This movie, however, has found the balance between story-telling and emotion, drawing the viewer in and making him/her feel for the characters.
Outstanding performances by the entire cast. There's not one that I could single out.
Heart-felt and touching, while dealing with big issues such as death, drug abuse, cancer, divorce, and what family truly means, among others. All done in a sensitive manner without sensationalizing any issue.
Life as a House will make you both laugh and cry.