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Poster for Life as a House

Life as a House

2001 · 125 min

A slow, earnest tearjerker about reconciliation and mortality, anchored by a raw father-son dynamic and the redemptive act of building a home.

Directed by
Irwin Winkler
Genres
Drama
Tagline
Seen from a distance, it's perfect.
Overview
When a man is diagnosed with terminal cancer, he takes custody of his misanthropic teenage son, for whom quality time means getting high, engaging in small-time prostitution, and avoiding his father.

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Directed by
Irwin Winkler
Genres
Drama
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How it feels

Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Tone
  • melancholicstrength 3 of 3
  • warmstrength 2 of 3
  • earneststrength 3 of 3
  • tensestrength 1 of 3
Pacing
measured, 2 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention
engaged, 3 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes
  • family
  • redemption
  • grief
  • coming-of-age
  • parenthood
Places
  • small town
  • home
Era
contemporary
Audience
adult
Form
None
Content intensity
  • Gore none
  • Language strong
  • Violence mild
  • Sex mild
All scales, 0 to 10
Scales, 0 to 10
ScaleValue0 to 10
Action2
Horror0
Humour3
Realism8
Romance4
Tension4
Darkness6
Complexity4
Emotional weight8

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Streaming data from JustWatch.TMDB

Details

Genres
drama
Directed by
Irwin Winkler
Written by
Mark Andrus
Starring
Kevin Kline, Hayden Christensen, Kristin Scott Thomas, Jena Malone, Mary Steenburgen, Ian Somerhalder, Jamey Sheridan, Scott Bakula
Music
Mark Isham
Cinematography
Vilmos Zsigmond
Runtime
125 min
Country
United States of America
Languages
English

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