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Life As a House, which had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, was described in the program book as being reminiscent of Parenthood, It's a Wonderful Life and The Parent Trap, but the film reminded me of a previous Toronto world premiere - American Beauty. Now, let's not get carried away here, because House couldn't carry Beauty's jockstrap. The similarities are only in the content, not the quality.
Kline (The Anniversary Party) plays architect George Monroe, who, like Lester Burnham before him, suffers daily at a job he no longer feels passionate about, but gets fired in one of the film's opening scenes. On his way out of the building, George collapses and is taken to the hospital, only to find out there's a cancer present that will devour him from the inside out within a few months. He is also father to a dark, brooding teenager named Sam (The Virgin Suicides' Hayden Christensen, who will soon be the dark, brooding Anakin Skywalker), who huffs gas and asphyxiates himself when he jerks off.
Unlike Lester, who sort of knew he was going to die and suffered a midlife crisis instigated by employment issues, George has been divorced from Robin (Kristin Scott Thomas, Up At the Villa) long enough for her to have squirted out two new kids with her current husband, the cold, unloving Peter (Jamey Sheridan, Law & Order: CI). And although he lives in a ritzy suburban neighborhood like Lester, George's house is a shack, which is a painfully ridiculous metaphor for both his rotten life and decaying innards.
Knowing he'll be pushing up daisies soon (and keeping his illness a secret from everyone), George decides it's the perfect time to bond with his rebellious son as the two - get this - tear down the shack and build George's dream house. Sam, of course, hates the idea, but soon changes from a pierced, dyed, black-clad, perpetually headphoned rent-boy into a normal, well-adjusted kid with no makeup and no attitude. After all, what angry, distant teen wouldn't relish taking a crowbar to his father's house?
Sure enough, the montage of the two building the new home soon follows, but George and Sam are joined by neighbor Colleen (Mary Steenburgen) and her daughter Alyssa (Jena Malone), and soon, even ex-wife Robin shows up with a hammer in her hand. As the house gets closer and closer to completion, George's health gets worse and worse, but he feels better on the inside, and that's all that counts, right?
House's neatly telegraphed story (penned by As Good As It Gets' Mark Andrus) offers precious little that we can't see coming a mile away (or that we haven't seen a bunch of times before). The only thing remotely surprising here is the amount of sex. I don't want to give anything away, but there are all kinds of combinations going on - May-December, December-May, December-December, May-May and so on. It's supposed to lighten things up, I guess, but some of it gave me douche chills.
Although it's totally schmaltzy, House is still somewhat stirring, due to its performances (especially Kline and the always reliable Malone). Director Irwin Winkler (At First Sight) doesn't do anything special with the formulaic script, unless you weren't expecting to see scenes where George is doubled over with pain. Oscar-winning cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond keeps everything bathed in a nice, warm light.
2:08 - R for language, sexuality and drug use
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