Line #8 Film/LifeAsAHouse


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/life_as_a_house.jpg]]
2
3	->''"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 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."''
4	-->-- '''George Monroe'''
5
6	''Life as a House'' is a 2001 American drama film produced and directed by Irwin Winkler with a screenplay by Mark Andrus.
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8	After being fired from his job as an [[ThisIsWhatTheBuildingWillLookLike architectural model fabricator]], George Monroe (Creator/KevinKline) discovers that he has advanced stage cancer and any treatment would be futile. George decides to demolish the home left to him by his father and spend his last days building a new house from the ground up, enlisting his estranged son, Sam (Creator/HaydenChristensen), to whom he has not revealed his terminal condition. In the meantime, George also reconnects with his ex-wife and Sam's mother, Robin (Creator/KristinScottThomas), who decides to assist as well. Also joining in the construction are various neighbors, including Alyssa (Creator/JenaMalone), Sam's classmate who lives next door with her mother Colleen (Creator/MarySteenburgen); and local policeman and George's childhood friend Kurt Walker (Creator/ScottBakula).
9	----
10	!!This film features examples of:
11	* AbusiveParents: George recounts that his father was abusive to him and his mother, and it's the reason for him to tear down the house he left him. He also makes a point to treat his son Sam differently, despite his unruly behavior.
12	-->'''George:''' I put a gun to my father's head once. Ever think like that? He was passed out. Had just been yelling at my mom over nothing. Under-cooked meat. I went to my room, I held the barrel right up to his ear, and then I chickened out again. Of course it was a BB gun, but still it would have hurt like hell.
13	* TheAllegedHouse: George, the protagonist, decides to demolish one of these left to him by [[AbusiveParents his father]], and spend his [[YourDaysAreNumbered remaining days]] building a new and much improved home with his son, friends and neighbours.
14	* {{Blackmail}}: Sam does this to David who wants to try to halt construction on the house.
15	* CrankyNeighbor: David.
16	* EmoTeen / TroubledTeen: Sam is a sullen, pill-popping teenager (complete with [[https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FtouySDrzTU/WanrYD4YjbI/AAAAAAAAGvE/JpbVAp3rPG4OxkgVJiGxxtv-9Yoq-OsVwCLcBGAs/s1600/Anakin.gif Goth makeup]]) and the black sheep of his family. He doesn't get along with his mom and resents he has to spend his summer with his dad, instead of getting high with his friends.
17	-->'''Sam''': Why can't you all just die and leave me alone?
18	* EroticAsphyxiation: An opening scene shows Sam engaging in this. He also makes a reference to this activity during his conversation with Alyssa.
19	-->'''Sam:''' Do you have any idea what it's like to jack off in an armoire?
20	* FunnyPhoneMisunderstanding: Josh is working on the house’s roof, not realizing Colleen is waiting to rendezvous with him. His cell phone is on a table with the other handymen's phones, and Colleen impatiently rings Josh’s cell. George mistakes which phone is Josh's and inexplicably answers it. Colleen, thinking she is speaking to Josh, gives George an earful that obviously wasn’t meant for him. [[spoiler: This is how Colleen and Josh’s affair is found out, resulting in a {{Slapstick}} scene where Josh falls off said roof]].
21	* {{Goth}}: Sam.
22	* HaveIMentionedIAmHeterosexualToday: Though Sam engages in prostitution with male clients, the film emphasizes his heterosexuality when Alyssa joins him in the shower.
23	-->'''Alyssa:''' Are you sure you’re totally into guys?
24	-->'''Sam:''' What are you talking about?
25	-->'''Alyssa:''' Josh said…
26	-->'''Sam:''' I’m not gay.
27	-->''[Sam glances down at himself; Alyssa looks too.]''
28	-->'''Sam:''' I mean, [[RagingStiffie hello]]!
29	* HeroicRROD: George has these in escalating fashion as both cancer and exertion take their toll on him as the film progresses, culminating in his death.
30	* HighSchoolHustler: Josh, Sam's friend who gives Sam a way to earn money through TheOldestProfession.
31	* InformedPoverty: A weird example in that George is a middle-aged architect who lives in a run-down house, and the movie takes place in a supposedly middle-class neighborhood. The problem is that the "run-down house" is on the edge of a cliff with a view of the ocean; that kind of real estate ''anywhere'' in California would be obscenely valuable.[[note]]It is, however, a house and property that George inherited from his own parents, which may have been more affordable for ''them'' to purchase in their era than it would be to him. And George has probably been spending all that he can on property taxes and maintenance to stay in such a prime location.[[/note]]
32	* JizzedInMyPants: Alyssa, the girl who [[LoveInterest Sam has a crush on]], decides at one point to join Sam in the shower, which he is borrowing the use of since his and George's new house is still largely incomplete. Sam, rather understandably, promptly gets a RagingStiffie as a result, and then asks Alyssa if he can [[BigDamnKiss kiss her]]. She agrees on the condition that they be JustFriends afterwards. All this stimulation swiftly causes him to ejaculate (off-screen, thankfully) all over the shower. Of course, awkward as this whole scene is for everyone involved, it does result in one of the movie's best funny moments when she immediately follows up her moment of amused disgust with "You're scrubbing down the shower."
33	* LighterAndSofter: This trope is used to illustrate [[CharacterDevelopment Sam's growing bond]] with his father and his change of heart. Over the course of the film, Sam ditches his multiple piercings and {{Goth}} makeup, which his dad never liked.
34	* LikeYouWereDying: The plot of the film.
35	* LoveFatherLoveSon: Alyssa kisses Sam and George, telling the latter since he dated her mom, she always wanted to know what it would be like to kiss him.
36	* {{Melodrama}}: Plenty of it.
37	* NewMediaAreEvil: George doesn’t want to use the computer-aided technology at the architectural firm, so his boss fires him.
38	* NoOSHACompliance: George is told that the proximity of an unenclosed toilet to a kitchen in his shack is a health code violation, so George resolves to quickly fix the problem by grabbing an armoire, emptying it, cutting a hole at at the bottom with his chainsaw, putting the armoire on top of the toilet, and sawing a rectangular area in the armoire for the window.
39	* NoSenseOfPersonalSpace: Multiple characters seem to have no sense of boundaries. Alyssa gets into the shower while Sam is inside. George showers outdoors and urinates in view of his neighbors. The shack he lives in has no separate barrier for the toilet, which Sam complains about and George tries to [[DoItYourselfPlumbingProject fix promptly]].
40	-->'''Sam:''' I think there has to be a door between where you cook and where you crap. Even in the bush - tribal people, you know, they have a place for both. Probably it's like a law. God! It's probably in the Bible. It's at least a building code violation.
41	* SecretlyDying: George does not disclose his condition to Sam until later in the film.
42	* ShowerOfLove: Sam [[ShowerOfAwkward inadvertently]] ends up in one of these with [[LoveInterest his crush]], Alyssa, but it goes no further than the two of them kissing before it [[JizzedInMyPants abruptly ends in awkwardness]]. They do, however, end up with a RelationshipUpgrade from there on out.
43	* StacysMom: Colleen to Josh.
44	* UnstoppableRage: George is fired from his job because he doesn't want to adapt to the new technology. He asks his boss if he can take some of his architectural models with him, but his boss says no. George proceeds to destroy all but one of the models, including one held by his boss.
45	* WeAllDieSomeday: George muses on mortality when Sam discovers his terminal cancer.
46	-->'''Sam:''' You knew you were dying from the start?\
47	'''George:''' We're all dying from the start. I just got moved to the head of the line.
48	* WickedStepfather: Peter, Robin's second husband. He is dismissive towards Sam and calls him a GenderedInsult behind his back because of his eye makeup, which his young son repeats at the table.
49	* YourDaysAreNumbered: When George gets his terminal cancer diagnosis. It spurs him to put all his remaining time and effort into building a new house to replace TheAllegedHouse his abusive father left him.
50	* YoureCuteWhenYoureAngry: George finds a really sophisticated way to basically say that to his ex-wife Robin in so many words.
51	-->'''George:''' You're the most beautiful woman I have ever known.\
52	'''Robin:''' ''[taken aback]'' What?!\
53	'''George:''' Not just physically. Even your anger's perfect.

Context Film / LifeAsAHouse