Movie review (oldie but a goodie)

Life as a House.

Kevin Kline is one of my favorite actors, for several reasons. The first is his uncanny ability to be a real chameleon. To go from the over-the-top hilarity of Otto in A Fish Called Wanda to the heart-wrenching performance as George Monroe in Life as a House is incredible. His portrayal of George merits notice because of the difficulty of making a seemingly maudlin story, honest, down to earth and rich in subtext and importance. The story of the man or woman with cancer who discovers his or her better self has been done before, perhaps too many times to make another “cancer changes lives” story that has traction. This story gets traction for a number of reasons, not the least of which is Kevin Kline’s ability to keep that quirky sense of humor, (laughing at jokes at which most of us get a bit uncomfortable, or just plain don’t get) and combine it with a real sense of purpose, his character now has a mission; that is, not to die having built something worthwhile, but, rather, to build a whole new life for those who mean something to him. Kline conveys this sense without tipping his hand that George even knows what he is doing, but it’s all measured by the completion of the house. That is the essence of the story, I guess; human beings can be absolutely beautiful, but discovering that beauty takes effort and often costs us dearly.

The basic formula is universal too, because everyone understands, in some way, the metaphor that you must tear down the weak and broken within us, and re-build with stronger and better “parts”. The trick is finding the motivation to do the tearing down. George has cancer, which is part of his motivation, but most of the true motivation for him concerns those around him; his son is living the life of a loser, his ex wife is living the life she thought she wanted, and his own cantankerous lifestyle doesn’t fit in with what he knows in his heart is true. Life can be beautiful, but it requires that we discard the feeble excuses we often make for ourselves and those around us. Discovering the beauty of life requires making choices that take us away from the “path of least resistance”.

I thought that Kristin Scott Thomas was great, she played a character who becomes conflicted as she awakens to her own circumstances through the experience that George gives her, Sam and her two young sons. Hayden Christensen (Sam) was ok too, but the whining in the beginning was a bit hard to take, and I freely admit I cannot stand him anyway. Jena Malone was fine, but the whole shower thing was too weird for me, not to mention the kissing. But at least I understood the kiss with George, I think. Mary Steenburgen was fine too, although again, I found the sex with the porsche driving wank a bit gratuitous.

I guess, the only weakness to the film for me was that it was just a tad too convenient that the disgustingly smug, jerk of a neighbor who tried to stop the construction of the house was the very same creep to whom Sam was prostituting himself. A tad too convenient.

Altogether an excellent film and story played with heart by Kevin Kline and the rest of the cast. Of course, anyone who knows me knows that I cried. I am a true boo-hooer. Which really makes me mad. Oh, yeah, one more thing which torqued me seriously, the back of the dvd cover has this quote “Its clear that Hayden Christensen is a force to be reckoned with.”—1) he is a totally self-absorbed dork (much like his character) who can’t act his way out of a wet paper bag, and 2) they ended the sentence with a preposition.