Life as a House

Best thing about this film? It has no prolonged, excruciating death scene. Which is very welcome, but in this case faint praise. Kevin Kline plays a man who learns he will be dying from cancer shortly, and decides to build the house he's always dreamed of building. He enlists his drug-addled son to help, and others become part of the project as it progresses, namely his ex-wife, her two sons from another marriage, a cop he went to school with, the girl next door and her mother whom he dated briefly after he divorced his ex-wife...and the list goes on and on. There are way too many characters! In particular, I don't get any of the characterizations of the females in this film. Jena Malone is playing a teenage tramp who actually isn't. Mary Steenburgen is a frustrated housewife which we're unaware of until she's in bed with her daughter's boyfriend. And I have no idea if Kristin Scott Thomas is even thinking about her role or just spacing out. The only reason to see the film is Hayden Christensen, who as one other amateur reviewer put it proves that "Star Wars was not his fault." The rest of the film is empty calories -- watch the dying guy destroy his life's work (gee, could you see that coming?), watch the ex-wife fall in love with her ex-husband again, watch the drug-addled son shower with the girl next door because she needs to wash her hair! At least the house is nice.

year: 2001
length: 125 min.
rating: 2.5
IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0264796/combined