Kevin Kline plays George Monroe an architect who lives in a shack by the ocean. His life is pretty awful. The wife he once loved is now divorced from him, his career is going nowhere, and the son he thought he knew now hates him. And to top all that, he's dying from cancer. Now in an almost futile attempt, he must now make amends with his son (Hayden Christensen) and do what he's always dreamed of. Building a large house by the sea and giving it to his son. I heard about this movie and thought it sounded good. It stars Hayden Christensen (the new Darth Vader), as the disgruntled outcast of a son who basically hates life and has a crush on the girl next door played by Jenna Malone. This a good movie to watch. I thought Kevin Kline was witty and likeable as the lonely and angry guy who wants to change his life before he dies. His role is delightful and charming at the same time. Hayden Christensen is really good in this role. He gives off a great dramatic essence as he pulls away from his family and eventually grows to love his father and become attached to him. The chemistry between Christensen and Kline is excellent. Kirsten Scott Thomas plays the lost love of Kevin Kline who is now married to an exact duplicate Kline's character. Distant from his sons, and pretty mean. Eventually all the characters change drastically through the end of the film, and all because of building a house.

The problem with this is that it tends to drag off from the original purpose of the entire movie into a bunch nonsensical sex scenes. I found it weird and just plain annoying. At times I couldn't tell who was the focus of the movie. It starts off focusing completely on Kevin Kline's character, then as the movie progresses, it completely shifts its focus on Christensen's character. I thought the aspect of the father/ son love hate relationship between Kline and Christensen was interesting, but at times Christensen's character is just like a whiney girl, screaming in violent hissey fits throughout the first half of the movie. I found this to be an attempted tear-jerker, but I didn't buy it one bit. It was more disturbing.

This is an enjoyable movie with a good plot and a great performance by Kevin Kline.