Rating: 
Summary: awesome movie
Review: I'm 14 and loved this movie. I don't know how many people know about this show called Higher Ground, but Hayden was in that. I remember thinking that he did a pretty good job portraying a troubled teen. When I heard about Life as a House I wondered whether he was going to be as good as I remembered. I was astounded. He's a very good actor. Also I like Kevin Klein. Two wonderful actors in one movie is very good. Besides having good casting this movie really is a tearjerker. I never like to cry during movies and I would have during this one (except my friend was over).
Rating:
Summary: Perfect
Review: This movie was beautifully done. It included the great talents of Kevin Kline, Kristen Scott Thomas and Hayden Christensen. I've seen it 4 times and was bawling at the end every single time. It is one of my favourites, and shows how one can turn their life around, even when there is little to no hope. It's a heart warming experience that lets you re-evaluate your life. It's a must-see!
Rating: 
Summary: Where was this movie in 2001?
Review: I remember seeing a theatrical trailer for this film mid last year but I never heard about it again and I am very suprised. This is a great film. A really enjoyable one. It's funny, sad, romantic, and disturbing all in one. Every cast member did a terrific job and the story is well driven and well told. Go see this underrated film.
Rating:
Summary: Hayden is HOT!
Review: i personally thaught the film was incredible!!! i've seen it twice and i baught the DVD!!!! you probabley already know the storyline, so i guess all i have to say is what i think of the movie... i laught.... i CRIED a lot... but i mostley enjoyed the film because of seeing the change that Sam (Christensen) goes througout the film. if he's not a great actor i don't know who is!!!. he cries a lot (i guess he just has a natural talent for crying). you can see that he is a very emotional charecter, although he seems like this drug-attic trouboled teen but the real deal is that he just has a lot of issues with his family and nobody seems to care. i love Hayden and i love this film and you'd be very stupid if you're not going to see it. and even if you're not interested in the story - you should see it for Hayden (he's GORGOUS!!!)
Rating:
Summary: This old house.....
Review: Kevin Kline plays a man who has four months to live and decides to use that length of time to bridge the gap between him and his troubled teenage son, Sam (played by Hayden Christensen, pre-Anakin Skywalker) and build the house he had always planned. Sam's mother (Kristin Scott Thomas) is at her wits end with her drug using, angst ridden son and agrees to let him stay the summer with his father. While tearing down his old, shack of house (that clearly annoys the neighbors) Kline's character,George, tries to reach out to his son and work through years of neglect that he regrets. Clearly, as he tears down the walls of his old house, he begins to tear down the walls of hurt that his son feels. The rest of the story revolves around the building of the house, involving neighbors---Mary Steenburgen and Jenna Malone, as a mother and daughter who live next door and Scott Bakula, as a good hearted police man. Kline gives a very good performance as does Scott Thomas. The chemistry between the two is very good. Hayden Christensen shows us that he should have more acting in him once his stint as Darth Vader is over. He was very good as a trouble young man in this film. This film will be well worth your time. Give it a try
Rating:
Summary: Hayden Christensen steals the screen!
Review: It seems that viewing a dysfunctional family always entertains. (Come on! The Ozzbournes?!) Maybe it's because it dreadfully reminds you of your own or maybe it's because it shows just how much better your family actually is. Anyway, this is what the movie's all about. It's about rebuilding and renovating the people around you. Becoming what you should've become later in life. Kind of the same concept of the long time cancelled television show Home Improvement. The message here is much more heartfelt. George (Kevin Kline), a man living in a dumpy old shack on the edge of a rocky shore, is fired from his hated job. Not only does he hate his job, he happens to hate his home as well. Actually he mentions hating many things. He soon decides to tear it down, and build something better. His ex-wife Robin (Kristin Scott Thomas) lives in a huge, modern home with her present husband and their kids. Sam, (Hayden Christensen),her blue-haired, 'thumbtack in chin' son from the previous marriage, feels nothing of himself. His first scene was perfect as an introduction to his character. The first thing he does when he gets up in the morning was hang himself in his closet. Unfortunately for him, it didn't quite work. What the deal is here, is how Robin doesn't really know how to discipline her 16-year-old son. She just let's him isolate himself and ignores his yelling. As summer begins, George decides to take Sam for the entire summer to aid in building the house. After a few funny moments between the somewhat strangered father and son, the bittersweet repairing of their family qualities begin. Just as in real life, in this movie, you'll have to take the good results with the unfair ones. With more strangely wonderful characters such as George's neighbors and Sam's drug dealing sidekick Josh, this movie gives more laughs than tears, and it gives you lots of tears. The highlight of this film would definitely be Hayden's impressive and captivating performance. Sam was so hardcore, but also very passionately sensitive. A beautiful character for a beautifully made movie. note: This would be a perfect movie for family if it weren't for two brief sex scenes. Just for the overprotective parents to know.
Rating:
Summary: Kline is brilliant, Christensen is even better.
Review: I've heard 'Life As A House' called a pathetic attempt at recreating classics like American Beauty and Terms of Endearment but in all honesty I must say I cannot see it. This is a beautiful movie and the acting is incredible. I've always been a fan of Kevin Kline and his incredible versatility but he earns my respect and admiration in the role of George. A middle aged retrenched architect who has discovered he has little time to live. In an effort to make amends with his estranged son before his death he takes him for the summer in hopes that while building a house together they might also build a relationship. Kline shines in this role, a very different role but worthy of recognition. His sarcastic, yet touching delivery creates a wonderful and relatable character that appeals to the senses. But the real star is Hayden Christensen. A bit of a dissapointment in star wars I adored him in this film. Perhaps the stifling role of the man who would become Darth Vader and the pressure of living up to Fan Expectations has diminished his ability to make the role his own. But there is no such stigma in house. His work is honest fresh and appealing. The raw emotion and hurt of his character is believable and heart breaking. I must confess to being in tears for at least an hour during this film. The absolute chemistry between Kline and Christensen and also Christensen and much matured Jena Malone makles this an enjoyable film for anyone and I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: High risk, high return
Review: With a dangerously corny title, and a few lines which ram home the central metaphor just a little too strongly, it would be easy to hate this film. Trouble is, it's just so damn endearing. Sure, the story unfolds with an easy predictability, and it's at least as emotionally manipulative as any other terminal illness film. But as the patient declines and his relationships recover, it's the light touch of the three lead actors who manage to pull this high-risk weepy back from the brink. Kevin Kline is perfectly unsentimental in a role which, on paper, must have been crying out for Kevin Spacey or Harrison Ford. But in the scenes that really mattered, Kline's warm and understated performance had me thanking God that neither of them got his part. Kristin Scott Thomas has never been more convincing. And Hayden Christensen proves definitively that his performance in 'Attack Of The Clones' was, like the rest of that film, an abomination for which we can blame George Lucas. (The kid had me crying in both movies - but for entirely different reasons!) This is easily the best film Irwin Winkler has directed, and Mark Andrus' script, despite some obvious flaws and occasional mawkishness, for my money still beats his overrated 'As Good As It Gets' hands down. There's something more honest and plausible at the heart of this one. It's very hard not to admire what the hero sets out to do, both literally and metaphorically: to tear down the legacy his father left him and create something better with his own son. With so many slick and cynical films out there, it's so nice to find one brave enough to tackle the difficult subject of male relationships, and to do so in such a surprisingly emotional way.
Rating:
Summary: BEST
Review: This is short, simple, and to the point:
This is the best movie I have ever seen in my short 18 years. This is the only movie that has made me seriously ball my eyes out. I would recommend to everyone to watch this movie; it really will change your outlook on life.
Rating:
Summary: A great movie
Review: The modern American dysfuctional family of the 90's (and perhaps dysfunctional neighborhood as well) comes to the screen in this sensitively written and extremely well-acted drama. Kevin Kline plays a dying architect who is making a final attempt to connect with all the people he loves but with whom he has had nothing but failures in his relationships in the past--mainly his troubled teenage son and his estranged, divorced wife. But even his relationships with his neighbors often leave something to be desired. When he is fired from his architect job, he takes his severance package and uses it to build a new house on the site of the old one, enlisting his unwilling son and his wife's support to build his dream house. Eventually even his neighbors, with whom, as I mentioned, George also hasn't always had the best relations either, get into the spirit of the project, as George attempts to build his dream house before time runs out. As another reviewer noted, the movie is rich in metaphor and works at many different levels of meaning. Perhaps the most interesting one is the analogy between the building of the new house and the rebuilding of the relationships with his son and former wife. As the walls of the old house are torn down, so George tears down the emotional barriers that have isolated him from his son and his wife. And the building of the new house becomes a metaphor for the new relationships he is creating with them. There is not a false note or misstep in the entire cast. The whole cast is really superb in the movie, and Kline gives an Oscar-worthy performance in the role of George Monroe. George knows he has nothing to lose since time is running out, and so he goes for broke--he is brutally honest with his son--even about the abuse he continually suffered at the hands of his own father, and about his own love-hate relationship with him. At one point George finds his troubled son standing at the cliff-side overlooking the ocean, which is hundreds of feet below. George walks up and says "Thinking of jumping?" His son says, "No, thinking of pushing" (referring to George). At that point George takes a death-defying leap off the cliff into the pounding waves at the base of the cliff, as his stunned son looks on. But George survives and although his son is now convinced his father is a complete wacko (as he says), he's also convinced he should give George a chance to rebuild their failed relationship. But the other relationships in the movie are also equally well done, especially between George and his wife, between his teenage son and the girl next door. All in all a great movie. Big Steve says go see it and don't "Bogart" the popcorn.
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