Life as a House (2001)

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"Truth doesn't set us free."
George (Kevin Kline) hates his job as a model maker for an engineering firm. He lives in a hovel of a seaside cabin surrounded by nice houses. His neighbors don't like him and he feels the same about them. His life has been full of anger starting with his hatred for his father. His estranged teenage son Sam (Hayden Christensen) is into drugs and gives his mother no end of grief.

When George is fired from his job and learns he has a terminal illness, he sets about to demolish his cabin and build a fine home in its place with the help of his son and ex-wife Robin (Kristin Scott Thomas). What he finds is a metaphor for his life, a renewed relationship with his son, and an understanding with his ex-wife.

Also appearing are Mary Steenburgen as George's judgemental neighbor and Jena Malone as the neighbor's teenage daughter. Sam Robards and Scott Bakula also appear.

Terrific Mark Isham music.

Directed by Irwin Winkler.

Run time: 2 hours, 5 minutes

Rated R for language, sexuality and drug use.

My personal rating: B

The Ice Storm (1997)

.”…a family is like your own personal anti-matter. Your family is the void you emerge from and the place where you return to when you die. And that’s the paradox. The closer you’re drawn back in, the deeper into the void you go.”
Over the Thanksgiving weekend in 1973, a Connecticut family slides into moral deterioration.

Benjamin Hood (Kevin Kline) drowns his troubles at work with too much booze and an affair with a family friend, Janey (Sigourney Weaver). His wife Elena (Joan Allen), sick of his lies and affair, pumps herself full of pop self-help books but her own moral code is tested when the couple attends a “key party” with many of their friends.

Their son Paul (Tobey Maguire) is home from his high school prep boarding school but goes back into NYC to pursue a teenage girl (Katie Holmes). Their younger daughter Wendy (Christina Ricci) is experimenting with liquor and teasing Janey’s teenage son Mike (Elijah Woods) while recklessly pursuing Mike’s little brother Sandy (Adam Hann-Byrd).

I question why the couple would go out in the middle of a pretty intense ice storm to a party and tell Paul to take a cab home from the train station late at night because the roads will be dangerous with the ice. But that’s the way the story went.

When a terrible tragedy hits, the family is jolted into reality and struggle to figure out what’s really important in life.

Jamey Sheridan appears as Janey’s husband. Henry Czerny also appears.

Directed by Ang Lee.

Run time: 1 hour, 52 minutes

Rated R for sexuality and drug use, including scenes involving children, and for language.

My personal rating: C

The Pink Panther (2006)

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"You never cease to surprise me, sir."
"It's true. My surprises, they are rarely unexpected."
When Yves Gluant, the coach of the French soccer team (Jason Statham) is murdered with a poisoned dart at the end of a game and his huge diamond ring, the pink panther, is stolen, the Inspector General Dreyfus (Kevin Kline) finds the most incompetent detective in France to cover the case so the press will leave Dreyfus alone to solve the case himself so he can, hopefully, be given the highest award in all of France.

of course, Dreyfus' plan backfires with wonderfully comic adventures as the bumbling Inspector Clouseau (Steve Martin) actually does solve the case.

Also appearing are Jean Reno as Ponton, the detective Dreyfus assignes to report back on Clouseau's investigation; Emily Mortimer as Nicole, Clouseau's secretary; Henry Czerny as Yuri, the soccer team's trainer from Russia; Kristin Chenoweth as Cherie, the team's secretary; Roger Rees as Larocque, Gluent's business partner; Beyoncé Knowles as Xania, Gluent's girlfriend; William Abadie as Bizu, a soccer player who resented Gluent; and Clive Owen as 006.

Directed by Shawn Levy.

Run time: 1 hour, 33 minutes

Rated PG for occasional crude and suggestive humor and language.

My personal rating: B

I Love You to Death (1990)

Based on a true story -- hard to believe, but true!

Joey Boca (Kevin Kline, with an incredibly fractured Italian accent) and his wife Rosalie (Tracey Ullman) own and operate a Tacoma pizzeria. While Joey is a major philanderer with several girlfriends (including Victoria Jackson, Heather Graham, Michelle Joyner), one of his employees, Devo Nod (River Phoenix) is trying to convince Rosalie that she's a dreamer to think she's got a good marriage. Both Devo and Rosalie's mother Nadja (Joan Plowright) know Rosalie can do much better without Joey.

Rosalie finally finds evidence that Joey's been unfaithful and with her mother and Devo, they hatch a plot to murder Joey. With the help of discount-priced hired murderers and potheads Harlan James (William Hurt) and Marlon James (Keanu Reeves) the plan is launched.

But before long, pizzeria regulars Police Lt. Larry Schooner (James Gammon) and Sgt. Carlos Wiley (Jack Kehler) bumble through disclosure of the plot -- but not before several riotously funny attempts have been made on Joey's life.

Miriam Margolyes appears as Joey's mother,

If you're a fan of A Fish Called Wanda, this one might be fun for you. Thanks to VR for recommending this film that I'd never heard of before.

Directed by Lawrence Kasdan.

My personal rating: B

Trade (2007)

Innocents Lost

Jorge (Cesar Ramos) is a 17-year-old punk mugger in Mexico City. When his 13-year-old sister Adriana (Paulina Gaitan) goes missing while riding the new bicycle Jorge gave her, he immediately tries to find her.

Veronika (Alicia Bachleda) is a young Polish woman who flies to the United States with a friend. They have been lured by the promise of becoming models and Veronika is in hopes of earning enough to bring her young son to America for "the good life."

Veronika befriends the young Adriana in the back of a seedy van being used to transport them into the international business of sex trafficking. Ray Sheridan (Kevin Kline), a cop from Texas who is searching for someone in Mexico, befriends Jorge and together they go on the trip of their lives trying to rescue Adriana who has been taken to New Jersey to be auctioned off on the internet.

An old friend of Sheridan's, Hank Jefferson (Tim Reid) is a cop in New Jersey and helps Sheridan at least learn some of the facts of the sex slave trade action in NJ.

Can Sheridan and Jorge find Adriana before she disappears completely into this dark, brutal world?

This is an important film that's received little recognition in the USA, probably because few want to admit this goes on in this country. Each year, more than one million people are trafficked across international borders against their will for sale in the sex trade.

Based on 2004 New York Times Magazine cover article by Peter Landesman, this film was directed by Marco Kreuzpaintner.

Rated R for disturbing sexual material involving minors, violence including a rape, language and some drug content.