HOUSE OF D
Directed & Written by: David Duchovny.
Produced by: Richard B. Lewis, Bob Yari & Jane Rosenthal.
Director of Photography: Michael Chapman.
Edited by: Suzy Elmiger.
Music by: Geoff Zanelli.
Released by: Lions Gate.
Country of Origin: USA. 97 min. Rated: PG-13.
With: Anton Yelchin, Téa Leoni, David Duchovny, Robin Williams, Erykah Badu, Frank Langella & Zelda Williams.

Every once in awhile a coming-of-age story rises above its genre. Many, however, are just sappy, filled with sentimental clichés. Cult star David Duchovny's first foray into big screen writing/directing, House of D, falls somewhere in between.

In bookends set in the present day, artist Tom Warsaw (Duchovny) relays for the first time his life story to his French wife on their son's 13th birthday, the same age Tom feels he became a man and, as he puts it, stopped feeling. Back in crime-free New York, 1973, young Tom (Anton Yelchin), a few weeks before he turns 13, lives with his emotionally unstable widowed mother (played by Duchovny's wife Téa Leoni). He works delivering meat with his best friend, the school's retarded (and they do call him that) assistant janitor Pappas (Robin Williams). And of course there’s the first love, first kiss, first heartbreak, etc. Tommy even gets a muse, Lady (Erykah Badu), a convict in solitary confinement at the Greenwich Village Women's House of Detention (where the movie gets its name). Sight unseen, she offers Tom words of wisdom from her window.

Performances across the board are surprisingly good. Yelchin gives a proper balance to a character on the border of childhood and adulthood, though more easily on the side of the former. Robin Williams, though at times grating with his typical shtick, is for the most part subdued. Most surprising is Tea Leoni, who actually gives a realistic performance - a welcome change from her over-the-top take in last year's mess Spanglish.

Duchovny adds a few little details that really do help give the film character, even if House of D itself does not completely rise above the clichés (Lady has all the answers) or its flimsy story line. That Tommy goes to a Catholic school and the head priest (Frank Langella) isn't a pedophile but a nice guy is a welcome change. Though the characters aren't psychologically rich and deep, their simplicities make them more realistic. There are times when the film gets far too sappy for its own good - the final act is unnecessarily long and suffers the most from this - but for the most part it avoids falling into melodrama. Brett Harrison Davinger
April 15, 2005