Rating: 
Summary: Amazing
Review: 'Life as a House' was an amazing movie. I saw it not knowing what to expect and I loved it. It's not often that a movie makes you think for days, even weeks after about the message it was trying to get across. Kevin Kline was superb and Hayden Christensen was very intense. This is a movie that everyone should see.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best movies I have seen!
Review: A great Cast especially Kevin Kline and Hayden Christensen, a beautiful Set, no digital effects, a great film!
Rating: 
Summary: I liked it
Review: Im sorry But I thought this movie was hilarious actually I watched it with my sister molly and we were laughing every minute. until the end that got kinda sad but Hayden Christiansen was hilarious and Kevin Kline was funny. rent this movie you get a combination of Drama and a few laughs
Rating:
Summary: If you were a house, what kind would you be?
Review: This was an awesome movie. I've been hearing raving reviews about it and when I finally saw it, I loved it. Hayden Christensen truly shines as an actor here, more so than in Star Wars. The movie is about a man who is divorced, his son has gone wild and doesn't care about anything. He gets fired from his job and soon after finds out he's dying. There is the summer left for him to get his son to love him... I want a copy of this movie to buy. I am definitely going to go out and recommend this one.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting and sad, Good story to tell
Review: Life as a House is a very contemporary movie, with its upbeat and also a sad plot to it. With Kline's character waiting to die for the entire movie almost, there are interesting character developments happening with the rest of the family involved, his ex-wife Robin played by Scott Thomas and rebellious son played by Hayden C. The movie has a good story to tell, the rebuilding of a home symbolizing the rebuilding of torn, angry and dysfunctional relationships between loved ones. However, the performances of the actors, esp. Scott Thomas who is as always brilliant, beautiful and naturally talented and Kline whose artistic abilites are shown here, do a very good job of keeping the movie flowing, without it dragging too much under a dark cloud since there is some light comedic dialogue between them. Recommended movie to rent.
Rating:
Summary: An AWESOME Movie
Review: While this may not be a movie that is full of action and suspense it does leave one wondering what will happen next. It isn't like the trashy movies that sometimes come out, and it shows life as it really can be...hard and painful. It didn't make drugs out to be a great thing as some movies do now days. This was just a real movie about real life and the struggles facing many families. I highly recommend this for anyone going into helping professions or anyone who really just wants to see what some people have to go through in life. Be open-minded and you will learn a lot through this movie!!!
Rating:
Summary: One of 2001's BEST
Review: This may not be the Best Picture of 2001, but it definitely is a brilliant, heart-touching film.
Kevin Kline delivers a powerful performance as George, and Hayden Christensen as his son. They both should've been nominated for actor and supporting actor Oscars.
Ok. It does have some little mistakes, but it really is not the point of the movie what the characters have, what they own. It's the meaning of each "little thing" from those that happens day by day what matters the most.
Be prepared, you'll sob in the end, for sure.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful film
Review: Vulnerability is a curious thing. Difficult, though perhaps not impossible, to fake or imitate successfully. And maybe that's why, when we are confronted with it in a startlingly real form, it has the power to bring us to our knees. To bring us to tears. Hayden Christensen, in Life As a House, nearly brought me to both. It wouldn't be accurate to say that Life As a House does anything entirely new. In some manner or another we have seen all of the elements present in this movie in some other film. But what makes it true, what makes it honest, is the presence of actors that care. Kevin Kline is stunning in his portrayal of a man daunted by past mistakes because of the limits imposed on his future. At times his pain, his physical pain, is not convincing. That doesn't matter. Because he talks about his own father, he talks about all of the horrendous mistakes his own father made, and he can still say that he "loved him too much." I believe him, I understand, and in that moment I, too, care. Christensen's character, a young man trying to find himself, his place, when he has no idea where to look, is remarkable. His transformation seems to take hold and progress rapidly. It's unrealistic. And it doesn't matter. Because, where once he couldn't tolerate the touch of another, he holds his father's hand. His arms come around his mother first and he holds her as though he is a child again. He grieved because he was beginning to understand his place, and I grieved for everything he lost and was willing to give up to hold onto it. This movie has its faults. But it has beauty and sometimes that's all we can ask for.
Rating:
Summary: Where were the Oscars?
Review: This was by far one of the best movies I had seen last year. If Mulholand Drive was nominated for an oscar than this movie should have been too. Very rarly do I give a review of four out of five stars, but I thought this movie deserved it. I myself can wait until a film comes out on VHS to buy it, but the day I saw this movie I went right to the store and bought it on DVD. A great film, I highly recommend this film to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: When "Life" Happens
Review: Somebody once said that "life" is what happens when you're not looking. And it's so true. Too often we let the years slip by, and the important things slip right along with them; and it's only when something happens that we start to pay attention, and by then it's too late to do anything about it. The good news, however, is that as long as you're still breathing there's still a chance to make amends, or at least try to. You can try, not to make up for past mistakes (and we've all made them), but to make "today" count, which is what a man at a particular juncture in his life discovers and sets out to do, in "Life As A House," directed by Irwin Winkler, and starring Kevin Kline. George Monroe (Kline) is an architect, a man who can design anything, with the exception of that which is the most important: His own life. He has a failed marriage-- now divorced for ten years from Robin (Kristin Scott Thomas)-- a failed relationship with his now sixteen-year-old son, Sam (Hayden Christensen), he's getting on in years and he's unhappy, which is driven home by circumstances involving his job and his health that make him abruptly sit up and take notice. His "house," literally and figuratively, in not in order. And he decides to do something about it. He's determined to tear down his old house and rebuild a new one, and he begins by arranging for Sam to come and live with him for the summer. And it will be a summer that will affect, not only George and Sam, but Robin, and a number of others, as well; a summer in which the trivial things of life are put on hold; and for once, the important things are embraced. Working from a well written and insightful screenplay (by Mark Andrus), Winkler delivers a drama that is thoughtful and poignant (at times, even poetic), wonderfully acted and beautifully filmed by cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond. Rich in metaphor, it's an engrossing film that works on a number of levels, and will appeal to a wide audience-- many of whom will relate to George and his situation, others who will identify with Sam; and for some, it may hit strikingly too close to home. Whatever your personal situation is, it will fall somewhere within the emotional arc Winkler creates here; and if it doesn't now, it will eventually. Because, as this film so trenchantly points out, "life" happens. And the most important thing is knowing what to do with it-- if not the first time around, then at least before it's too late. He received an Oscar for his portrayal of Otto in the comedy "A Fish Called Wanda," but Kevin Kline decidedly hits his stride in dramatic roles: As Nathan in "Sophie's Choice," Mack in "Grand Canyon" or Ben in "The Ice Storm," for example; and now here, as George Monroe. Kline brings George believably to life, with a performance that hints at who George was, but most importantly tells us who he is now. With understated subtly, he conveys his inner-most feelings in a way that enables the audience to make that all-important emotional connection with the character. He makes you feel as though you know him; and once you do, and once you meet Robin, it's hard to understand what went wrong between them all those years ago. One can only assume that somewhere along the line youth and a lack of focus took it's toll-- understandable in a world that bombards us daily with endless stimuli. And it's one of the subtle perspectives that makes this film so effective. Kristin Scott Thomas gives a convincing performance, as well, as Robin, a woman who has moved on with her life, but in whom you can discern a certain dissatisfaction with her current situation. On the surface, her life seems agreeable, but we see through her portrayal that it is still lacking in some regard. She seems happy to some extent, but it's more like the unfulfilled happiness that comes when one has "settled" for something. You get the sense that what she has with her current husband, Peter (Jamey Sheridan), is somehow less than what she had with George, at least at some point or other. Thomas does a good job of indicating the complexities of her character, dipping beneath the surface to make what could have been a one-note character alive and interesting. One of the real rewards of this film, however, is found in the wonderfully affecting performance of young Hayden Christensen, as Sam. With but a few TV appearances and a handful of unremarkable films to his credit (the exception being a part in Sophia Coppola's "The Virgin Suicides"), Christensen is virtually an unknown, but comes through with some extremely impressive work here. He not only finds, but manages to convey, that turmoil of confusion and need for personal identity that every teenager experiences, and he presents it quite naturally and effectively. There's nothing feigned or pretentious about him; the Sam he delivers comes from somewhere deep down inside, and working from the inside out makes him very real and believable. It's a performance that should jump-start his career, which is about to be catapulted into high gear/high profile status when "Star Wars: Episode 2, Attack of the Clones" hits the screen, in which he plays the role of Anakin Skywalker. And because of the magnitude of that film and all that goes along with it, he will never receive the acclaim he deserves, no matter how good a job he does in it; so it's important that he has this film under his belt, which demonstrates what a truly gifted young actor he really is, a fact that may be overlooked once "Clones" hits (which is what happened to Leonardo DiCaprio after "Titanic"). And Christensen's performance here is a big part of what makes "Life As A House" a winner.
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