Product Description

Confronted with life-changing news a middle-aged architect seizes the opportunity to begin living life on his own terms as he builds the house of his dreams and winds up rebuilding the world around him in the process. Special features: two original documentaries: deleted scenes and much more. Studio: New Line Home Video Release Date: 09/26/2006 Starring: Kevin Kline Kristin Scott-thomas Run time: 124 minutes Rating: R Director: Irwin Winkler

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4211 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-03-26
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 124 minutes

Amazon.com
A respectable tearjerker, Life as a House is a welcome throwback to angst-ridden family dramas like Ordinary People and Terms of Endearment. It falls short of those modern classics, but you'll probably still need Kleenex if you appreciate Kevin Kline's underrated dramatic skills. As the title suggests, Kline's project is a broad metaphor for repairing damaged lives from the foundation up. Playing an architect with terminal cancer, he gives an Oscar^®-caliber performance, reaching out to his estranged, nihilistic son (future Star Wars star Hayden Christensen) and ex-wife (Kristin Scott-Thomas) as he wrecks and rebuilds the Malibu cliff-top home that contained his most painful memories. Director Irwin Winkler's flair with actors helps to minimize lapses in a script (by As Good As It Gets scribe Mark Andrus) that occasionally borders on maudlin. Overall, this is a fine reminder that Hollywood hasn't lost its soul to action and special effects. --Jeff Shannon

From The New Yorker
Kevin Kline gives a persuasive and ornery performance as a middle-aged failure who devotes himself to building a dream house on the golden cliffs of California. He plays an architect who doesn't think much of himself but is determined to follow his own path, and Kline's face is lit by anger in ways that we've never seen from him in movies. Much of the picture, until the tear-dripping conclusion, is charming. As the house goes up, various people drop in to saw a few boards, flirt, or make mischief. Kristin Scott Thomas, relaxing onscreen for the first time, plays George's rueful ex-wife. Hayden Christensen is his sixteen-year-old son-pierced, eye-shadowed, and drugged. The sunshiny cinematography is by Vilmos Zsigmond. Irwin Winkler directed. -David Denby
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

EXCELLENT FILM...LIFE AS A HOUSE
THIS IS A HEARTWARMING FILM ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS. KEVIN KLINE, AS ALWAYS,
IS RIGHT ON CHARACTER IN THIS ROLE. WORTHWHILE OWNING THIS MOVIE.

I've Always Wanted To Build My Own Home
I guess I shared a dream with the Kline character but never saw it through. He did.
This movie may dampen your eyes at times but it really is a story of people finding themselves in this crazy world. I can't think of a scene that isn't superb.
And what acting - Kevin, Hayden and Kristin in particular but the whole cast as well.

From Here On
This book is everything I thought it would be. If you are 60 or over, you will be overjoyed with Reeve Lindbergh's thoughts on growing older.