In the movie Life as a House, George, a forty-something employee at an architectural firm, loses his job and his health. When he learns he has only four months to live, the disrepair of his sorrowful life comes into painful focus.

George (played by Kevin Kline) determines to spend the remaining weeks of his life building the house he'd always dreamed of. With the help of his estranged teenage son (played by Hayden Christensen) and ex-wife (played by Kristin Scott Thomas), he tears down his shack and builds a beautiful home on the California coast. The restoration of his house is a metaphor of his life.

During this process, George tells his son, Sam, about how his alcoholic father (Sam's grandfather) caused an accident in which a woman was killed and her small child was paralyzed. He aches over the injustice his father caused.

When George dies, he bequeaths the newly built home to Sam. Sam knows in his heart what he needs to do to honor his father's memory and make restitution to someone who has been denied justice. He locates the paralyzed girl in a rundown trailer park.

As Sam and his mother walk through the trailer park, his mother asks, "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Yes," says Sam.

"You could keep it and rent it out," his mom suggests.

"This is what he wanted," Sam insists.

His mother says, "I read the letter. You read the will. He wanted you to keep it and live in it someday."

Sam says, "All right, maybe it's not what he wanted. But it's what he was hoping for."

As the scene ends, Sam and his mother encounter the woman in a wheelchair hanging laundry on a clothesline. In a voiceover, George's voice can be heard: "Twenty-nine years ago my father crossed a double line. It changed my life and that of a little girl forever. I just can't stop thinking about it."

Sam says to the woman in the wheelchair, "Excuse me. Would you mind if we sit a moment and talk? My father built you a house."

Elapsed time: From the opening credit, this scene begins at 1:58:00 and lasts one and one-half minutes.

Content: Rated R for sexuality and language.