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List Price: $9.98 | | Label: Lions Gate
Salesrank: 21891
Released: October 4, 2005 |
| Our Price: $3.39 |
| Used Price: $1.00 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
BY WORKING THROUGH CHALLENGES STEMMING FROM HIS PAST, TOM WARSHAW, AN AMERICAN ARTIST LIVING IN PARIS, BEGINS TO DISCOVER WHO HE REALLY IS & RETURNS TO HIS HOME TO RECONCILE WITH HISFAMILY & FRIENDS.
Description of House of D:
House of D is a bittersweet, moving story of an American expatriate's painful decision to come to terms with the childhood he fled in early 1970s New York City. David Duchovny wrote and directed this comedy-drama; he also stars as the adult version of the film's hero, Tom Warshaw, an illustrator who has spent most of his life in Paris and decides—on the occasion of his son's birthday—to finally reveal long-withheld facts about his past.
The bulk of the story, told in flashback, portrays 13-year-old Tom (Anton Yelchin) as a quick-witted prince of his neighborhood, a delivery boy who knows every eccentric on his bicycle route and a Catholic school kid fond of playing pranks on his clueless French teacher and soulful principal (Frank Langella). His best friend is the school's mildly retarded, 41-year-old janitor, Pappas (Robin Williams), and his advisor on matters of the heart is Lady (Erykah Badu), a prison inmate whom the fatherless Tom (or Tommy, as he's called in 1973) can neither see nor touch. Tommy's vivacity is an asset at home, where his mother (Tea Leoni), a grieving widow with a mounting addiction to pills, is slipping away from her son's ability to help. Duchovny's screenplay sometimes borders on the precious: A number of scenes are enamored with their own boldness and originality, as if Duchovny has been squirreling away lots of colorfully expressive storytelling details for years, and unloaded them here. But that flaw all but disappears in the glow of House of D's emotional resonance and honesty, not to mention several exceptional performances. Among these is Zelda Williams's work as Tommy's sage-beyond-her-years girlfriend, Melissa, whose name offers a suitable excuse to work a rather lovely Allman Brothers song into the soundtrack. --Tom Keogh
House of D Reviews:
Wondeful movie, somewhat a sleeper 
2009-05-13 - Viewed the last 15 minutes of this file on IFC one night and my wife and I found ourselves wanting to see the entire movie.
We were not disappointed. Robin Williams was great and it is always nice to see him not being zany once in while. David Duchovny did a good job as well. Great story, well portrayed.
House of D
2009-03-11 - This movie proves that David Duchovny is not only an excellent actor but a talented writer as well. Regardless of what that critic (whatever his name is) said several years ago, this is a movie well worth watching. It's a touching story of the friendship between a teenage boy and a retarded man. The boy also develops a friendship with an inmate at the House of Detention, near his neighborhood, whom he never sees. They just talk to each other. Tea Leoni plays the mother of the teenager beautifully. (She's beautiful even in bad movies such as Fun With Dick and Jane.) David Duchovny appears at the end of the movie.
An American homage to 400 blows!
2009-02-28 - Since Francois Truffaut made his masterpiece "400 blows" about the hopeless childhood, we had to wit for a fifty years to wait for a film like this one where precisely the sequence when Tomas runs is just the bitter end of 400 blows.
Paris will be the final stage of redemption and bliss for this desperate and sensitive teenager who simply is shocked sonce his mother remains in vegetative state.
The memories of his childhood never vanish and so being an adult, he will undertake his personal Ithaca, back to New York to remeet with his ashes of the past.
Heartfelt and warm movie that will let you think about the importance of following your bliss in this world.
Don't miss it.
I love Tommy
2009-01-17 - Love this movie.really makes oyu think about the choices we make and how they affect everyone around us.
House of D - More than touching and worth a look 
2008-07-11 - I just finished watching "House of D" and consider this a great film worth at least a five star rating. The story is more than touching with several wonderfully special characters that almost everyone can to relate to. While watching it I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but was always smiling.
I will not try to tell the story but only say that it features Robin Williams and David Duchovny in a story set in Greenwich Village, the Chelsea area of New York, and briefly in Paris. Robin Williams and David Duchovny were wonderful as were the many other actors in this underrated film. Apparently, Amazon viewers liked it as well.
The DVD includes some interesting but short documentaries on the making of this film and some good bigraphical material on David Duchovny. It also discussed casting the film which was a big part of making this very excellent movie.
Every now and then when I watch a film like this (because of casting) I briefly come to my senses and realize that cinema has so much more to offer than horror and sci-fi movies.
