Inclubabu Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Abegail Noëlle While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

SnoopyStyle Sam Monroe (Hayden Christensen) is a mess and doesn't get along with his stepfather. His mother Robin Kimball (Kristin Scott Thomas) divorced from his father George Monroe (Kevin Kline) 10 years ago. George gets fired from his hated architectural job. He's dying from cancer and decides to tear down his shack to build his dream house. He has a combative relationship with his next door neighbor Colleen Beck (Mary Steenburgen). Her daughter Alyssa (Jena Malone) is Sam's schoolmate and she likes Sam. George forces Sam to spend the summer with him building the house. School drug dealer Josh (Ian Somerhalder) recruits Sam to prostitute himself and they're arrested by the police.I am not a Hayden Christensen fan. Other than 'Shattered Glass', I rarely like his performances. For this movie, he's well cast for this whiny bitter teen character. He has a pathetic self-indulgent streak that is perfect for this role. This movie can be overly sentimental. I would rather not have some of the sappy talk between Sam and Robin. It needs to stay focused on the father and son relationship. There are also a few too many people sleeping around. That cul-de-sac turns into orgy central all of a sudden. There is a solid foundation of a sentimental movie in the middle of everything.

ramdi A good movie about marriage, broken families, what life promises and what we fail to deliver. It is also about finding love again, finding a path to the heart of someone dear, and finding a way to overcome your own weaknesses, and that we should never think that it is too late, because a moment of meaning is worth every effort. This movie hosts one of the best lines in all the inspirational movies I have ever seen: "I can tell you I love you as many times as you can stand to hear it and all that does, the only thing, is remind us, that love is not enough, not even close". This would be on all the lists of inspirational movies if it were not so real-life, down the nitty-gritty, filth, mistakes, infidelities and addictions of the characters. That rich and balanced mix is also what makes it so believable and so touching, moving and captivating. It is a tear-jerker and a good one at that, as such family-related dramas should be. I do not know if I will go back and watch this again once or twice a year like I do Shawshank Redemption or other inspirational movies. But it is definitely a keeper, to revisit, for some excellent scenes, good acting and beautiful scenery.

Floated2 I found the film to be pretty good, not as emotionally wrecking and heartfull as many made it out to be, but nonetheless it was still pretty good. The film is filled with some clichés but in Life as a House it works for the most part. Although the film is predictable, it was still pretty entertaining to watch. Though, I found there to be many things that were somewhat unnecessary in the film that didn't add much or didn't need to be in the film. Some of them were quite awkward. Things such as Alyssa taking showers with Sam after only a few visits (her not really knowing him). Colleen (Allyssa's mother) sleeping with Josh (Alyssa's boyfriend). Alyssa later on kissing George (she said that he looked like a good-kisser??). I also didn't like the ending with the narration of Kevin Kleine's voice-over, also the family giving the house (that they spent a lot of time building) to the little crippled girl. It sended a bad message.But the film makes up with the mistakes with great performances all around. Kevin Kleine as George the protagonist was great, along with Hayden Christensen as Sam (troubled teen in the start to nicer kid). The supporters were great also.

moonspinner55 Screenwriter Mark Andrus attempts to write for beleaguered middle-aged adults as well as 'misunderstood' high school kids in "Life as a House", and neither group comes off especially well. Kevin Kline, a divorced and unemployed model-maker recently fired from an architectural design firm, decides to tear down his ramshackle oceanfront abode to build his dream home (perhaps not the ideal time); he also chooses this unintended respite to get reacquainted with his pierced, pill-popping teenage son, who wears eye makeup to show us he's rebellious (also to allow his stepfather to call him "queer" so we can see what an insensitive jerk the guy is). Andrus doesn't miss a beat: we also get Kristin Scott Thomas as Kline's still-loving ex-wife who harps at him exhaustively when she's not coyly flirting (she pays a visit and whispers, "I dreamed about your house last night..."). The moody, foul-mouthed son has enough problems to star in his own movie; he berates his father, too, with such dialogue as, "You can't promise me anything because you don't have anything to promise!" It's a groan-worthy soap opera accented with little bits of naughty business (like Kline urinating in his yard when his plumbing goes out) which serve no purpose except to make us snicker. It turns out the kid isn't "queer" after all once he begins trading jaded endearments with the conveniently-placed doe-eyed lass next door, and Kline gets his way with the city ordinance after taking a chainsaw to a cabinet and installing that all-important enclosure around his toilet. If only real life were so simple! * from ****