Life as a House (2001)
Average Rating: 5.3/10
Reviews Counted: 105
Fresh: 49 | Rotten: 56
A manipulative tearjerker, Life as a House benefits from fine performances from the cast.
Average Rating: 4.7/10
Critic Reviews: 32
Fresh: 11 | Rotten: 21
A manipulative tearjerker, Life as a House benefits from fine performances from the cast.
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Average Rating: 3.8/5
User Ratings: 56,511
Movie Info
Kevin Kline stars as George, a down-on-his-luck architect in this tearjerker from Irwin Winkler (At First Sight, Guilty By Suspicion). A disdainful local character who draws disapproval from the community, particularly his neighbor played by Mary Steenburgen, George sets out to change his life after suddenly losing his longtime job and discovering he's terminally ill (he has cancer). Attempting to reconnect with his estranged and troubled son, Sam (Hayden Christiansen), George endeavors to spend
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Cast
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Kevin Kline
George -
Kristin Scott Thomas
Robin -
-
Jena Malone
Alyssa -
Mary Steenburgen
Coleen -
Mike Weinberg
Adam -
Scotty Leavenworth
Ryan -
Ian Somerhalder
Josh -
Jamey Sheridan
Peter
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All Critics (124) | Top Critics (37) | Fresh (49) | Rotten (56) | DVD (27)
Gauged strictly by the gag-factor, a more honest title might be Life as a Basement Apartment with Bad Light and a Dank Smell.
Top CriticThe movie gets us to feel about the characters, their relationships, and their circumstances, and that goes a long way towards allowing us to forgive the screenplays' occasional mis-steps and wrong turns.
Life as a House reaches easily past all your intellectual and emotional barriers, back into that spot behind your heart, where the levers that release tears are stored.
[Kline] works beyond the call of duty here, although the role exploits and corrupts his natural charisma while hardly taking advantage of his estimable talent.
This father-son melodrama is well acted, but it's too solemn and too concerned with being inspirational
Uneven but moving story of reconcilliation.
Remember the movie Terms of Endearment, about a mother-daughter relationship, a terminal illness and a message about not taking people for granted?
Thank goodness there are actors capable of delivering performances better than the scripts they're given. Too bad there aren't more of them in this movie.
Life as a House is no cinematic masterpiece but it stays with you.
...the people who assembled Life as a House imagined it as a kind of American Beauty for the slightly more-literal-minded, for those who hated or felt baffled that film will likely like and apprehend this one.
A blatant tearjerker with the kind of shady characterization and plot development that give the genre a bad reputation.
Even the most perplexing problems are wrapped up neatly before the conclusion. In this "House," nobody goes home lonely: Even the local pimp gets some good, good lovin' before the final curtain.
Llorarán y sin embargo saldrán de la sala con una sonrisa de esperanza y los deseos de construir su propia casa-existencia, ajustada a sus propios y más íntimos anhelos.
Retrato de la importancia de las relaciones humanas y el dolor que estas conllevan.
Achieves an intimacy rarely seen in a star-laden Hollywood drama.
As a drama it's insipid, maudlin junk that'll have you reaching for the sick-bucket rather than the Kleenex.
Glosses over some hard truths in order to resurrect the notion of cozy family bonding that is still a sacred tenet of our national mythology.
Rebuild your house, rebuild your home, rebuild your family, rebuild your life is the rather obvious message. If only it really were that simple.
While the script is a bit too neat and tidy in tying together various subplots, the strong acting and mostly assured direction elevate the film.
Let me just warn you - you will need a hanky. Who cares if it's a little too neatly done?
While it is both funny and tragic, the two themes don't always work together.
Its one redeeming quality is a stellar cast that struggles mightily to overcome a turgid screenplay -- unfortunately, they don't succeed.
This 'House' is no Oscar palace, but neither is it a movie-of-the-week tenement.
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Movie: ID: 13018 Title: Life as a House Release Date: 2001-10-26 00:00:00.0 MPAA: 4 Status: 1
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