AllMovie

Life As a House thinks it's in the American Beauty school of mid-life crisis, family dysfunction, and neighborhood politics, and it even tacks on two pointless episodes of adult-teen sexuality to drive home the comparison. The film is too serious, simplistic, and sappy to be in the same league as that Oscar-winner, its attempts at biting humor always falling short, but it does have affecting moments for those willing to lower their standards to the level of well-meaning populism. Kevin Kline turns in his usual good work, but his is just one of the characters written as a walking contradiction -- a fierce iconoclast, he nonetheless won't stand for his son having something so commonplace as facial piercings. Said son (Hayden Christensen) is bursting with rebellious hatred, but can't commandeer his ample will for more than shouting matches with Kline. These of course subside once he begins removing those "thumb tacks" from his face, and taking a sledgehammer to a house so ramshackle it practically screams "symbol of the past." Meanwhile, name supporting actors like Mary Steenburgen and Scott Bakula are given nothing to do, drawing more attention to the script's lack of balance. Mark Andrus' dialogue strains to come across as pithy and insightful, sacrificing a necessary realism in the process. Still, films involving disease and father-son reconciliation, especially those set against a sparkling Pacific Ocean, seem to strike a popular chord. The greatest sin of Irwin Winkler's film is that it strives to be something more profound and less conservative than the sentimental family drama of which it is capable.