Life as a House

New Line Cinema | Release Date: October 26, 2001

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

45	METASCORE Mixed or average reviews based on 32 Critic Reviews

Positive:

Mixed:

Negative:

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

Mike Clark

Kline is one of the rare major actors not afraid to look like hell. And given his character's plight, his willingness to get physically unpleasant matches the emotion he brings to the part. Read full review

Michael Wilmington

This movie lets you feel something. Like George's house, if not his life, it's built well and full of heart. Read full review

David Denby

Just when this sunshiny and affectionate comedy is beginning to bloom, the inevitable, tear-jerking conclusion closes off the fun like a Venetian blind blocking the light. (29 Oct 2001, p.93)

Kevin Thomas

Works as a heart-warming, involving experience. Read full review

Roger Ebert

Because it is slick and classy and good to look at, and the actors are well within their range of competence, you can enjoy the movie on a made-for-TV level, but you wish it had been smarter and tougher. Read full review

Rene Rodriguez

Makes for a compelling comedy-drama about family ties. It's only when the cancer takes center stage that the movie feels like a wash. Read full review

Lou Lumenick

An overwrought, ramshackle weepie that really doesn't deserve Kline's Oscar-caliber work. Read full review

Steven Rea

Elevated beyond its cutesy contrivances and mawkishness by some extraordinarily good performances. Read full review

Michael Dequina

With nothing in the way of inspiration coming on either the writing or directing end, it's up to the actors to maintain audience interest and emotional engagement, and two members of the cast rise to the occasion: Kline and Christensen. Read full review

Desson Thomson

It's a pleasant movie, written with care for the characters. But as the film's title suggests, scriptwriter Mark Andrus has made too obvious and clunky a metaphor of George's house. Read full review

William Arnold

The real bottom line here is that the character just doesn't make much sense. Read full review

Barry Johnson

Fortunately, Winkler has a good cast. Read full review

Rita Kempley

Built with fine materials and boasts a gorgeous ocean view. Unfortunately the family dramedy's design is overblown and the construction is pretty flimsy. Read full review

Lawrence Toppman

I heard a moviegoer calls this drama "a feel-good `American Beauty,'" which is like saying "a hot bowl of gazpacho" -- the point has completely been missed.

TV Guide MagazineKen Fox

The phrase "Everything happens for a reason" is heard more than once, a risibly simplistic cliché that not only stands as this film's hackneyed theme but also as a surprisingly honest confession as to just how calculated the entire film is. Read full review

Jay Carr

This one is nearly as bad as it gets, suggesting that all the wrong people were wielding the sledgehammers here.

Robert Koehler

A family melodrama that becomes less authentic as it progressively takes itself more seriously. Read full review

Ella Taylor

There's nothing particularly wrong with this movie, except that it's too nice for words. Read full review

Joe Morgenstern

Mark Andrus's script is built on soggy sandstone, and Irwin Winkler's bulldozer direction keeps unearthing toxic epiphanies. That's not to say the movie isn't occasionally moving, as well as exasperating.

Bob Graham

Kline, in particular, has the spark and know-how to overcome some awfully belabored writing and situations. Read full review

Mr. ShowbizKevin Maynard

There's really nothing more to this by-the-numbers, ailment-of-the-week fodder dressed up with a classy cast.

Stephanie Zacharek

Forget about cancer -- it's weepy movies like this that are the real scourge. Read full review

Stephen Holden

Doesn't trust the audience enough to keep from laying on the schmaltz. Read full review

Richard Schickel

Will the movie end in an orgy of sentiment? Why do we bother to ask? Read full review

Lisa Alspector

Big, schmaltzy melodrama with mini melodramas. Read full review

Marrit Ingman

This family melodrama is as subtle as a load of bricks and occasionally as painful, but it offers two of the most finely tuned acting performances yet this year. Read full review

Peter Travers

Christensen is the only jolt of excitement in this turgid soap opera. Read full review

New Times (L.A.)Bill Gallo

Like hundreds of doomed movie protagonists before him, the hero of Life as a House doesn't have long to live. By the second reel, you may find yourself wishing his time on the planet was even shorter. Read full review

Jack Mathews

Kline will break your heart, while the rest of the movie will just make you sick. Read full review

Lisa Schwarzbaum

No worse than any disease-of-the-week TV movie, and no more moralistic than any Lifetime drama. But it's no better, either, and it ought to be. Read full review

Michael Atkinson

So feel-sniffly-good it could make you revisit lunch. Read full review

Michael Sragow

Life as a House mounts a brutally insensitive attack on its audience's sensitivities. Read full review