Review of Life as a House (2001) by Pete L — 17 May 2011

"Can you build a house in four months?".

"I can die trying.".

A decent movie, but what brings this down is some pretty bad acting and some awful dialogue.

Plot: A terminally ill man decides to build a magnificent house on his land overlooking the Pacific ocean while trying to connect with his estranged social delinquent son and reconnect with his ex-wife who may just still love him.

Despite this being a serious Drama this does have some pretty funny moments. Hayden Christensen is flat out awful in this. It makes no sense to me as to why they chose him for the role when I'm dead sure there were better actors who auditioned for it. He doesn't fit the character at all. It's almost hilarious to see him on screen trying to act. I usually enjoy Jena Malone's acting. I loved her performances in Into the Wild and Donnie Darko. She was even good in Stepmom from what I can remember, but I feel that she could have done better in this. But Kevin Kline and Kristin Scott Thomas a did fantastic job. I didn't think the soundtrack really fit with the movie. I understand some of the music comes up when the son has his head phones on, but there are times when he doesn't and some heavy metal music is playing. I enjoyed the plot and it's subplots but there's one thing I would change. Now before I say this it isn't my intention to spoil anything. I thought the main character waited too long to tell everyone he had cancer.(We know this from the beginning). I just think if he had done it sooner it would have made the movie more powerful emotion wise. Even as I'm writing this I can't help but think of all the directions this movie could have gone in had that happened. The movie falters somewhat in dialogue. In some areas it's but in others it's just awful. The characters are good and even though Christensen did an awful job, I really enjoyed his character's development over the course of the film. But in the end I can say I found this movie to be enjoyable. Total Score: 6.5/10.