Life as a House: Movie, DVD Review

Directed by Irwin Winkler, written by Mark Andrus, 128 minutes, rated R.

(Originally published 2001)

Irwin Winkler's "Life as a House" stars Kevin Kline as George Munroe, a divorced, middle-aged, out-of-work architect trying to fix his broken relationships before cancer fixes him.

With only four months to live, the task at hand is monumental--George took a wrecking ball to his relationships years ago. But he nevertheless believes that by tearing down his old shack of a house and building his dream home with the help of his 16-year-old son Sam (Hayden Christensen), he can also rebuild what's left of his disappointing life and reconnect with himself and his family before it's too late.

He certainly has a lot of hammering to do. As this well-acted, yet overly sentimental film goes through the range of its melodramatic motions, it makes certain that George has to pound through layers of emotional bedrock before getting through to anyone.

His main problem isn't just the cancer threading through his system or his chilly relationship with his ex-wife, Robin (Kristin Scott Thomas), who's suffering through a conveniently muddy second marriage to a jerk named Peter (Jamey Sheridan). Instead, George's real problem is his relationship with Sam, a troubled, self-loathing, drug-addicted wreck whose idea of fun is to hang himself in his bedroom closet as a means for sexual pleasure--and whose idea of making some quick cash involves becoming a male prostitute.

With Mary Steenburgen as George's neighbor, Coleen, and Jena Malone as Sam's feisty love interest, Alyssa, "Life as a House" has good intentions and a fine supporting cast. But since Winkler is more interested in manufacturing emotions than he is in creating something real, much of his film feels like a connect-the-dot Lifetime television movie that somehow bulldozed its way into theaters--and now into your local video store.

Grade: C