"Life as a House" is an imperfect movie with noble aspirations about imperfect people with noble aspirations.
In his best role in years, Kevin Kline plays George Monroe, a middle-aged man whose life is in ruins. Estranged from his remarried ex-wife (Kristin Scott Thomas) and his miserably rebellious teenage son (Hayden Christensen), he lives in the ramshackle house he inherited from his father.
On the day he's fired from his job, George collapses and wakes up in a hospital. The news is not good. Faced with a very brief future, he decides to tear down the shack he's been living in and rebuild it by hand.
George sees this major feat of home improvement as a last chance to bond with his angry, pot-smoking, glue-sniffing son, but the integrity of his task ultimately attracts and transforms everyone in George's life.
Although it's the type of movie that Frank Capra might've directed Jimmy Stewart in sixty years ago, there's a raw frankness to the film that both balances and battles with its misty-eyed nobility.
Screenwriter Mark Andrus ("As Good as it Gets") navigates the rocky waters between quirky comedy and heart-tugging sentimentality with mixed results. For every scene of emotional truth there's a moment of "only-in-the-movies" contrivance, and major self-revelations tend to just drop out of the characters' mouths.
Director/Producer Irwin Winkler ("The Net") strikes a good balance between comedy and drama, and is especially adept at drawing strong performances from his actors.
Although "Life as a House" lacks the cinematic finesse of "American Beauty" (which it occasionally resembles), it's hard not to love - or at least admire - the film for what it does accomplish.
The film is boldly unashamed of its central metaphor of the house that (like its inhabitants' relationships) must be torn down to be rebuilt again. And let's face it, how many Hollywood film-makers even know what a metaphor is?
While characters in most Hollywood movies are either aggressively lovable or just plain bad, there's a complex imperfection to each of this film's central characters. George is an endearing misfit who let his own childhood scars prevent him from being the husband and father he could've been.
Kline's Oscar-caliber performance is filled with multi-layered nuance. He and Scott Thomas beautifully portray the estranged couple who are all too aware of the mistakes they've made along with way.
As their troubled son Sam, Christensen is simply terrific, showing the pain and vulnerability beneath his teenage rage. The evolution of this father-son relationship is the heart of the film and the two actors never hit a false note.
Christensen will soon be immortalized, as movie star and action figure, playing Annakin Skywalker - the boy who will be Vader - in "Star Wars II: The Attack of the Clones." The starwars.com website has omitted "Life as a House" (in which his character sells his body for drugs) from the actor's resume.
Despite its flaws, including more subplots and conflicts than it can effectively resolve, the film is both worthy and worth seeing for its incisive depiction of imperfect but very human relationships.
In his best role in years, Kevin Kline plays George Monroe, a middle-aged man whose life is in ruins. Estranged from his remarried ex-wife (Kristin Scott Thomas) and his miserably rebellious teenage son (Hayden Christensen), he lives in the ramshackle house he inherited from his father.
On the day he's fired from his job, George collapses and wakes up in a hospital. The news is not good. Faced with a very brief future, he decides to tear down the shack he's been living in and rebuild it by hand.
George sees this major feat of home improvement as a last chance to bond with his angry, pot-smoking, glue-sniffing son, but the integrity of his task ultimately attracts and transforms everyone in George's life.
Although it's the type of movie that Frank Capra might've directed Jimmy Stewart in sixty years ago, there's a raw frankness to the film that both balances and battles with its misty-eyed nobility.
Screenwriter Mark Andrus ("As Good as it Gets") navigates the rocky waters between quirky comedy and heart-tugging sentimentality with mixed results. For every scene of emotional truth there's a moment of "only-in-the-movies" contrivance, and major self-revelations tend to just drop out of the characters' mouths.
Director/Producer Irwin Winkler ("The Net") strikes a good balance between comedy and drama, and is especially adept at drawing strong performances from his actors.
Although "Life as a House" lacks the cinematic finesse of "American Beauty" (which it occasionally resembles), it's hard not to love - or at least admire - the film for what it does accomplish.
The film is boldly unashamed of its central metaphor of the house that (like its inhabitants' relationships) must be torn down to be rebuilt again. And let's face it, how many Hollywood film-makers even know what a metaphor is?
While characters in most Hollywood movies are either aggressively lovable or just plain bad, there's a complex imperfection to each of this film's central characters. George is an endearing misfit who let his own childhood scars prevent him from being the husband and father he could've been.
Kline's Oscar-caliber performance is filled with multi-layered nuance. He and Scott Thomas beautifully portray the estranged couple who are all too aware of the mistakes they've made along with way.
As their troubled son Sam, Christensen is simply terrific, showing the pain and vulnerability beneath his teenage rage. The evolution of this father-son relationship is the heart of the film and the two actors never hit a false note.
Christensen will soon be immortalized, as movie star and action figure, playing Annakin Skywalker - the boy who will be Vader - in "Star Wars II: The Attack of the Clones." The starwars.com website has omitted "Life as a House" (in which his character sells his body for drugs) from the actor's resume.
Despite its flaws, including more subplots and conflicts than it can effectively resolve, the film is both worthy and worth seeing for its incisive depiction of imperfect but very human relationships.