Passes the Bechdel test
Life as a House
2001. Directed by Irwin Winkler, written by Mark Andrus.
The Bechdel test
Bechdel score
3 / 3
Passes
-
Yes
1. At least two women
5 women characters. 5 of them speak. -
Yes
2. Who talk to each other
In 2 scenes out of 176. -
Yes
3. About something besides a man
In those scenes, our script parser found no man named. See the scene.
Second opinion
Agree bechdeltest.com readers give it 3 out of 3, though someone marked that rating as dubious.
The film
George Monroe (Kevin Kline) is a lonely and sad man. Divorced for ten years, he lives alone on the southern California coast with his pet dog in the same run down shack in which he has lived for twenty-five years, the shack which his father passed down to him. In the intervening years, ostentatious houses have sprung up around him. He's been at the same architectural firm for twenty years in a job he hates, which primarily consists of building scale models. On the day that he is fired from his job, he is diagnosed with an advanced case of terminal cancer, which he chooses not to disclose to his family. In many ways, this day is the happiest of his recent life in that he decides to spend what little time he has left doing what he really wants to do, namely build a house he can call his own to replace the shack. He also wants his rebellious sixteen-year-old son, Sam Monroe (Hayden Christensen), to live with him for the summer, hopefully not only to help in the house construction, but for the two to reconnect as a family. Getting Sam to do any of it will not be an easy task as Sam, who has embarked on some self-destructive behavior, would rather do anything than spend time with his family, which also includes his mother Robin Kimball (Dame Kristin Scott Thomas), her wealthy but emotionally unaffectionate husband Peter Kimball (Jamey Sheridan), and their adolescent children. In Sam, George sees an unhappy person in every aspect of his life, much like George was before that fateful day. What Sam decides to do for the summer may consider Alyssa Beck (Jena Malone), his pretty classmate and George's next door neighbor. Through the process, George also reconnects with Robin, who admits that she's made some pretty bad decisions in her life. He may not want that reconnection to go too far considering his health. Ultimately, George has much to do to complete all he wants before he dies.
- Released
- 09 Nov 2001
- Genres
- Drama
- Rated
- R
- IMDb
- 7.4 / 10
- Metascore
- 45 / 100
- Awards
- 2 wins & 9 nominations total
- Elsewhere
- View on IMDb
Starring, by lines spoken
- Women
- Men
- Not in the cast list
- Bigger name, more lines
- George 339 lines, man
- Sam 221 lines, man
- Robin 176 lines, woman
- Alyssa 131 lines, woman
- Peter 48 lines, man
- Colleen 43 lines, woman
- Adam 40 lines, man
- Josh 32 lines, man
- Ryan 30 lines, man
- Kurt 29 lines, man
Full cast, 17 people
- Kevin Kline as George Monroe
- Hayden Christensen as Sam Monroe
- Kristin Scott Thomas as Robin Kimball
- Jena Malone as Alyssa Beck
- Mary Steenburgen as Colleen Beck
- Ian Somerhalder as Josh
- Jamey Sheridan as Peter Kimball
- Scott Bakula as Officer Kurt Walker
- Sandra Nelson as Nurse
- Sam Robards as David Dokos
- Mike Weinberg as Adam Kimball
- Scotty Leavenworth as Ryan Kimball
- John Pankow as Bryan Burke
- Kim Delgado as Bob Larson
- Barry Primus as Tom
- Margo Winkler as Barbara
- Jon Foster as Corey
Who talks, scene by scene
Lines of dialogue in every 4 scenes, start to finish. Women above the line, men below. 1% of lines come from characters we couldn't match to the cast list and aren't shown.
Women
Men
Scene 1 Scene 176
Hover, tap or tab to a bar to see those scenes: where they happen and who's talking.
Show the numbers
| Scenes | Women's lines | Men's lines |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 4 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 to 8 | 1 | 0 |
| 9 to 12 | 9 | 9 |
| 13 to 16 | 4 | 25 |
| 17 to 20 | 20 | 31 |
| 21 to 24 | 6 | 10 |
| 25 to 28 | 0 | 3 |
| 29 to 32 | 0 | 61 |
| 33 to 36 | 32 | 37 |
| 37 to 40 | 13 | 18 |
| 41 to 44 | 6 | 44 |
| 45 to 48 | 0 | 17 |
| 49 to 52 | 8 | 20 |
| 53 to 56 | 27 | 44 |
| 57 to 60 | 5 | 19 |
| 61 to 64 | 2 | 17 |
| 65 to 68 | 7 | 31 |
| 69 to 72 | 11 | 61 |
| 73 to 76 | 9 | 9 |
| 77 to 80 | 11 | 11 |
| 81 to 84 | 22 | 31 |
| 85 to 88 | 15 | 64 |
| 89 to 92 | 20 | 10 |
| 93 to 96 | 8 | 10 |
| 97 to 100 | 15 | 19 |
| 101 to 104 | 10 | 8 |
| 105 to 108 | 5 | 1 |
| 109 to 112 | 2 | 0 |
| 113 to 116 | 16 | 10 |
| 117 to 120 | 8 | 7 |
| 121 to 124 | 17 | 36 |
| 125 to 128 | 1 | 5 |
| 129 to 132 | 4 | 10 |
| 133 to 136 | 3 | 33 |
| 137 to 140 | 6 | 5 |
| 141 to 144 | 8 | 23 |
| 145 to 148 | 14 | 4 |
| 149 to 152 | 5 | 7 |
| 153 to 156 | 0 | 9 |
| 157 to 160 | 1 | 6 |
| 161 to 164 | 6 | 35 |
| 165 to 168 | 2 | 9 |
| 169 to 172 | 1 | 4 |
| 173 to 176 | 4 | 5 |
The evidence
- Straight from the script
- Counted from the script and the credits
Tap an exhibit to open it.
Exhibit A: the passing scenes
The scene our parser counted as passing, word for word.
COLLEEN: I want you both to stay. ALYSSA: And candy too.
ALYSSA: Mom? COLLEEN: Here, honey!
Exhibit B: every 100 lines
Out of every 100 lines with a known speaker, 31 are women's.
364 lines from women, 818 from men.
- Women
- Men
Exhibit C: who's in it
5 women and 12 men in the cast. 5 women and 12 men from it get lines.
Characters
With lines
- Women
- Men
Exhibit D: who gets heard
A woman speaks the first line.
The longest stretch with no woman speaking runs 73 lines.
Every line of dialogue, first to last
- First line by a woman
- Longest stretch with no woman speaking
Words spoken
Women speak 28% of the words (2,729), men 72% (7,008). Women have 31% of the lines, so their lines run shorter than men's.
Exhibit E: the test the other way
Two named men talk to each other about something besides a woman. It passes the reverse test.
Conversations between two named characters
Two women
11
Two men
70
Exhibit F: behind the camera
4 of the 11 people in these jobs are women.
Across the whole crew, 27% of the people whose gender is listed are women.
- Directed by
- Irwin Winkler (man)
- Written by
- Mark Andrus (man)
- Produced by
- Rob Cowan (man), Irwin Winkler (man)
- Shot by
- Vilmos Zsigmond (man)
- Edited by
- Julie Monroe (woman)
- Music by
- Mark Isham (man)
- Production design by
- J. Dennis Washington (man)
- Costumes by
- Molly Maginnis (woman)
- Cast by
- Randi Hiller (woman), Sarah Halley Finn (woman)
The crew, department by department
-
Sound
2 women, 17 men, 9 not listed
-
Art
2 women, 3 men, 13 not listed
-
Production
6 women, 8 men, 4 not listed
-
Camera
1 women, 10 men, 6 not listed
-
Other crew
1 women, 10 men, 6 not listed
-
Costume & Make-Up
7 women, 0 men, 4 not listed
-
Editing
2 women, 3 men
-
Lighting
0 women, 2 men, 2 not listed
- Women
- Men
- Gender not listed on TMDB
Exhibit G: how old the stars were
Women: 35 on average. Men: 39 on average.
The top-billed cast, at the film's release.
Women
Jena Malone 16, Sandra Nelson 36, Kristin Scott Thomas 41, Mary Steenburgen 48
Men
Hayden Christensen 20, Ian Somerhalder 22, Sam Robards 39, Scott Bakula 47, Jamey Sheridan 50, Kevin Kline 54
Exhibit H: the money
It made 1.3 times what it cost.
- Budget
- $18 million
- Box office
- $23.9 million
From TMDB, not adjusted for inflation.
About this analysis
Our parser read the script: 176 scenes and 1,196 lines of dialogue. The bechdeltest.com rating comes from that site’s readers. How the test works
