Life as a House
Cast
N/A
Rater #1
Has Not Seen Movie.
Rater #2
2/10. When one movie does well, other movies follow and copy it. One prime
example is American Beauty copycat Life as a House. The two follow
the same formula: man makes drastic changes in life and tries to
make life count by bonding with his children and doing things he
never thought he would do. There's one problem though: American
Beauty is one of the best films of all time. Life as a House is one
of the worst films of all time. Life is a watered down, less extreme
version of American Beauty. It's for the teenagers whose parents
won't let them watch American Beauty. And why not? It has an up-and-
coming teen heartthrob who can't act worth two tomatoes (Hayden
Christensen), an older star that can draw older audiences (Kevin
Kline), a bunch of random B-list actors, and someone who deserves
better than this type of movie (Jena Malone).
George (Kline) is just fired from his job as an architect (where he
supposedly designed hundreds of great buildings-then why does he
live in a normal house in suburbia?) who is diagnosed with some sort
of cancer. He decides to build a house with his estranged Goth son
Sam (Christensen) during his last few months. Within a few days,
their relationship turns around and they both work on the house.
That's it. That's a pretty exciting two hours, isn't it?
The thing in this movie that annoyed me the most was the constant
barrage of morals. They had no real place in the movie, and they
just kept being thrown at us. Director Irwin Winkler goes with the
crap against the wall theory-throw enough crap against the wall and
some will stick. That's not the case here. Nothing sticks. What's
even worse is that they don't even follow with the morals they
introduce. For example, George tells Sam how change is gradual and
you might not even realize it. In the next scene, Sam's a completely
different (normal) person. That's not that gradual, if I'm not
mistaken. A mistake that was made was billing this as a dramedy. It
could be considered a "drama", but it's not funny unless you laugh
at a naked boy being nervous around a naked girl or people talking
about the stench of their fecal material. I thought this was
supposed to be an adult drama. Nope, I'm getting this confused with
American Beauty again.
So if this man's final dream is to build a house with his son, why,
as the movie's going towards its denouement, EVERYONE FROM THE
FREAKING NEIGHBORHOOD IS BUILDING THE HOUSE FOR HIM! This
architectural "genius", whose final dream is to build a house by
himself (and his son), is being done for him. And he's not even
upset! He might not have been able to finish it, but that's not the
point. The point is that it's shoddy writing by Mark Andrus. More
foul balls on the writer's court: Sam's change is uncalled for.
George tells him a sob story about how his dad used to beat him, and
then Sam has some sort of mental epiphany and wants to help his dad.
Every single character is underdeveloped. Who is this George guy?
Why should we care if/when he dies or not? Have we seen anything
previously that should make us like him? And instead of making us
feel sorry for Sam, I became angry at my namesake. I understand what
it's like to be a teenager (I am one), and moodswings are common,
but man, what a jerk! I don't have any random drug addictions like
Sam in the movie did, but he's just a completely unlikable character.
Kline can never top his work in A Fish Called Wanda, and he knows
it. He doesn't even try here. "I'm ready for my paycheck, Mr.
DeMille." Christensen, as many may recognize from the ill-conceived
Star Wars prequels as Anakin, is the opposite of Kline and trying
too hard. Everyone else tries too hard. The only one who succeeds is
Malone, in her small role. Her movies haven't been the greatest (see
also: Saved!), but she's a good actress and can turn a role in any
crappy movie into something pretty good. But just because she's good
doesn't mean the rest of the movie doesn't stink to high hell. It
really does. How much do I hate this movie? After I finished
watching it, I tried to ruin the DVD for others before returning it
to Netflix. I want no one else to watch this "movie".
Rated R for language, sexuality and drug use.
Running time: ? minutes
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