Kevin Kline Stars as George Monroe
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Life as a House, Starring Kevin Kline, is a fine platform for the
star to show the potential for his true dramatic range. With a rather
straightforward plot with no twists or unexpected turns, the movie sets
up and spoon feeds you all the necessary elements for a well-intended
drama that pulls at the heart-strings. This is fine for Kline, and while
I found the movie somewhat enjoyable, it's certainly not deep.
Kevin Kline
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The movie starts with Kline's character, George Monroe, being fired
after 20 years of having been one of the top architects at his firm. He
collapses as he exits the building, and wakes up in the hospital to learn
that he's dying. This prompts him to reassess his life, and so doing, he
decides to tear down the shack of a house he's been living in, which was
he inherited from his abusive father. In its place, he intends on building
a new house, and with it, his relationship with his 16-year-old son,
Sam (Hayden Christensen). He does this by forcing the blue-haired and
facially-pierced teenager to spend the summer helping him.
Kristen Scott-Thomas
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After some predictable resistance, he ends up helping, and the next
thing you know, people all around start joining in. George's former wife,
Robin, played by Kristin Scott Thomas, realizes she's not happy in her new
marriage and starts coming by to help as well, regaining her affection
for him in the process. It seems that everyone's magically entranced
with George, which is all well and good, but there's no real reason for it.
We never saw why any relationships fell apart in the first place, so
there's no feeling of accomplishment when they re-unite. Life isn't that
simple. Whatever conflicts the characters faced—past or present—they
are easily overcome without too much effort.
Kritin Scott-Thomas
Kevin Kline
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While the movie does a good job at character portrayals, they are
not endowed with reasons for their actions. Subplots are extremely
superficial, many drop completely without follow-through, conclusion or
even consequences. In one case, the 16-year-old girl next door, Alyssa (played
by Jena Malone), decides to get into bed with George and French-kiss him
because she was curious about the fact that he used to date her mother,
played by Mary Steenburgen. And that's it for that plotline. Even the
relationship with Steenburgen is only referenced in passing. There
are a host of relationships that start and stop quickly in this light
drama/comedy, but none of them amount to anything, nor do they have
anything to do with the plot
Jena Malone
Hayden Christensen
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Despite my disappointment in Life as a House, this is possibly an
excellent movie for teenagers. Despite the focus on Kline's character and
his performance overshadowing everyone else's, the roles of the teenagers
are noteworthy; the issues they face, the emotions they feel, and the
simplified way their stories are told all work well for an audience that
may not be as demanding of depth. One can enjoy the movie at its most
basic face value, which is probably much the way it was intended. Still,
I felt the movie copped out—with a little more work, it could have been
all that, plus a movie with depth and meaning.
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