Cinema: Life As A House

George Monroe (Kevin Kline) is an architect's assistant. He lives in a shack overlooking the ocean. He also has one of those fatal movie diseases that doesn't restrict strenuous physical activity or general good cheer. He decides to renovate his house and his disaffected son (Hayden Christensen) by employing him on the job. Will they reconcile? Will the house get finished before George croaks? Will the movie end in an orgy of sentiment? Why do we bother to ask?

--R.S.

Quotes of the Day »

RAY KELLY, New York City Police Commissioner, on the arrest of a New Jersey man in one of the nation's most baffling missing-children cases, the disappearance more than three decades ago of 6-year-old Etan Patz.
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