Life As a House

Review by By Clint Morris

Parents. Can't live with them, can't live without them. It's only when they're finally gone that we ache to hear their voice one more time, or have them caress your hair again, the way they did when you were young. And, contrary to what some may say, they are the single most important people in your life, helping shape and prepare you for your future.

The love for ones parents is almost always there, but sometimes it's hidden beneath an exterior of hidden guilt and angst, as explored in Irwin Winkler's Life As a House.

Sam (Christensen) is crying out for help. He has a streak of blue through his hair, a pierced labrette, and an expensive drug habit. His estranged father, George (Kevin Kline) doesn't live at home anymore, but is aware of his 16-year-old son's bleak outlook on life. When George is fired from work and consequently informed that he has cancer, he realises this is the last chance to get to know Sam.

From his first year of marriage to Sam's mother, George has dreamt of building his own beachfront home. The time has now come to see through the dream, and even though he's not impressed, Sam is roped along to stay with Dad for the summer to help.

What they are building over the course of the summer though isn't a house, but a new found love for each other and a chance for both of them to claim a musical chair in the game of life.

The irrepressible Kevin Kline plays George with mournful eyes and appropriate grim smile whilst bringing some haggard sweetness and tough desperation to the role, causing the viewer to root for this dying soul. I'm pretty confident, though, that most people checking out the film aren't there to see Kline. They are there to get their look at the new 'Darth Vader' Hayden Christensen in his first pre-Star Wars role, and I think they will be pleasantly surprised.

Christensen is totally immersed in the part - right down to the moody hard-shell he has surrounding him so no one can get close, as his mother, Kristin Scott Thomas, makes the most of a relatively minute underwritten part. The metaphor may be obvious, but that doesn't mean the obvious can't be pleasurable. Irwin Winkler, remembered as being the producer of Rocky, pushes all the right buttons here and, with it's golden theme of yearning and escape, works much better than some of Winkler's previous films.

The characters in Life As a House are very easy to relate to. There is the unhappy single father, the angst-ridden teenager, the twice married mother drowning in a sea of misdirected affection and the young girl next door (Malone) constantly competing with her equally vivacious mother (Mary Steenburgen) and wallowing in somewhat unorthodox curiosity. More than an emotional wash-out, Life As a House is at it's best when exposing a full heart, drawing mist from even the more tightly squeezed of eyes.

Where Winkler fails in delivering the ultimate weepie is in its obscure set-up. Besides the fact that sometimes it's beautiful Californian backdrop and contrived synopsis blankets a somewhat spotty script, it wails uneasily between various genres. It's primarily a relationship movie about a father and son, but in some scenes it's hard to tell that it's not a kinky sex comedy or a wacky melodrama. Still, for the large part of it, it is constantly attempting to break our hearts and lift our spirits, and succeeds, easily sliding in for a home run.

3.5 out of 5

Life As a House
Australian release: Thursday May 23rd
Cast: Kevin Kline, Hayden Christensen, Kristin Scott Thomas, Jena Malone, Mary Steenburgen, Jamie Sheridan, Scott Bakula.
Director: Irwin Winkler
Website: Click here

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