Review of Life as a House (2001) by Carlos C — 15 Jan 2008

Life as a house was a pretty fun movie. Kind of strange/unbelieveble at times and even predictable. Although I guess to be fair not everything about life is "predictable" but some of the situations come at opportune moments.

I'll firstly admit that my curiosity at seeing Hayden Christensen in something other than a role requiring him to sport a Jedi Robe, was a big factor in me checking out "Life As A House". I'd heard lots of good things about this picture and that Christensen did a good to great job.

I personally was actually disappointed with Christensen's performance in this. He suffered from a similar complaint he gets in Star Wars Episode II, which is that he was too much of a "whiner". I have to agree that his portrayal of a "emo" or goth teen was rather annoying. I mean people can pull off roles like that and not come off as annoying, but I was noticing how annoying his attitude was, which I guess is actually a good thing. Perhaps I personally am not around enough spoilt "emo" teenagers enough to understand the reality of his portrayal.

Anyways, Kevin Kline as the lead role shines in this film as the father who never had time to be, but due to learning about his terminal cancer, attempts to take the time over the summer to form a bond with his son the aforementioned "emo" Hayden Christensen.

Kline seems so genuine and caring. It's as if the fog was thusly lifted once he learned of the cancer AND lost his job. Then his character strives to be not only the father he forgot to be, but he also begins to reconstruct his relationship with his ex-wife who during the course of building this house with him, learns she loves him again and of his illness.

The building of the house brings them together over the course of the summer and the viewer can't not but ask, if Kline could do this to bring back his son and ex into his life, how did he lose them in the first place?

Also as far as strange goes, you'd think this was a hippie commune atleast when it came to the way Jena Malone and her "mother" Mary Steenburgen acted in this film. I honestly couldn't understand how real it was for Jena Malone's character to act flirtatious and even go as far as to be nude with Christensen's character but profess to want to "just be friends". If any hot girls act like this normally around other men when dating someone, please do come live near me. ;).

The tight nit community and their task pull together to help build Kline's house, even more urgently once they learn of Kline's illness. It really is a great film though about the relationships between broken families and how sometimes we forget to put in that effort when it comes to caring about one another. Kinda made me wish my family were closer in that respect. I enjoyed it.