Movie that inspire me: Life as a House
George Monroe (Kevin Kline), a fabricator of architectural models, is fired from the job he has held for twenty years when he refuses to fall into step with his co-workers and use the computer technology available to them. In a fit of rage at his boss’ refusal to let George keep the models that he had built, he destroys all of the models with a bat, keeping only one for himself. As he exits the building, he collapses on the pavement and is rushed to the hospital, where it is revealed he has cancer of such an advanced stage that the doctor feels any treatment would be futile.Liberated from a job he hated and funded by his severance package, George decides the time has come to demolish the ramshackle home left to him by his father and replace it with a house more in keeping with the ambiance of his upscale neighborhood. He decides to enlist the aid of his son, angst-ridden and self-loathing Sam (Hayden Christensen), a rebellious, pill-popping, glue-sniffing teenager with blue hair, makeup, and a number of piercings. Sam is alienated from his stepfather Peter (Jamey Sheridan) and his mother Robin (Kristin Scott Thomas) finds herself unable to cope. Against his will, Sam must spend the summer with George, who has opted not to reveal his terminal condition, and help him with what will be the final project of his life. Sam is not happy to be forced to stay with George and makes it a point not to help him with the house’s construction. In return, George refuses to give him any money and makes him shower outside. In attempt to gain money to fund his drugs, Sam turns to prostitution, however he is caught and forced to flee. This leads him to take George’s Vicodin.
As time passes, George slowly reconnects with Sam. Robin decides to assist as well, and she begins to find herself rediscovering the man she once loved. Also joining in the construction are Alyssa (Jena Malone), Sam’s classmate who lives in the house next door with her mother Colleen (Mary Steenbergen); local policeman Kurt Walker (Scott Bakula), George’s childhood friend; Sam’s young half-brothers Adam (Mike Weinberg) and Ryan (Scotty Leavenworth); various neighbors; and eventually Peter, even after separating from Robin when it becomes apparent she has renewed feelings for her ex-husband. Eventually, George tells Robin of his disease, sending her into a shock. That same night, he tells Sam, who reacts with feelings of betrayal and accusing George of being selfish. George responds by saying “No, Sam I wasn’t trying to get you to like me, I was trying to get you to love me,” making Sam even angrier at the betrayal and leading him to take refuge at Alyssa’s house. During that night, George collapses in his garage/shack and is found by Robin the following morning. Complications arise when cantankerous neighbor David Dokos (Sam Robards) tries to halt construction because the building’s height exceeds the allowable limit by six inches. His plans to halt the project are stopped by Sam, who recognises him from his prostitution attempt and subtly blackmails him with that information.As a final act of love towards his father, Sam puts Christmas lights all over the unfinished house and shows George the gleaming house from his hospital window. The next morning, Sam returns to finish the house and Robin sits beside George until his death. After a while, Robin goes to the house and tells Sam about his father’s death. Sam, much changed by his re-engagement with his father, inherits the house he finished building, but in the closing scenes he decides to give the property to the girl who had been injured in a car crash that George’s father had been the cause of, who was living in a trailer park, rather than occupying it himself or selling it for profit. Over a voice-over, George says his final words to Sam: “I always thought of myself as a house. I was always what I lived in. It didn’t need to be big; it didn’t even need to be beautiful; it just needed to be mine. I became what I was meant to be. I built myself a life… I built myself a house. Twenty-nine years ago, my father crossed a double line. Changed my life and the life of a little girl forever with that mistake. I can’t stop thinking about her. With every crash of every wave, I hear something now. I never listened before. I’m on the edge of a cliff, listening. Almost finished. If you were a house , Sam, this is where you would want to be built: on rock, facing the sea. Listening. Listening.”
