Video Shelf

* New This Week: Director Irwin Winkler, writer Mark Andrus and a starry cast bring winning conviction to “Life as a House,” their heart-tugging story of a sour middle-aged man (Kevin Kline) who has one last chance to fulfill a dream and to win the love of his troubled teenage son (Hayden Christensen). This kind of emotion-charged material can easily seem hokey and contrived, and it takes the combination of Andrus’ easy sense of humor and deft gift of characterization as well as Winkler’s belief in the values that his film espouses and his ability to inspire convincing portrayals all around to make “Life as a House” work as a heartwarming, involving experience. Kristin Scott Thomas is Kline’s warm, lovely ex-wife, and Mary Steenburgen is Kline’s neighbor and ex-flame, a single mother with an uninhibited teenage daughter (Jena Malone). Completing the world is Dennis Washington’s crucially expressive production design and Mark Isham’s always enhancing, never intrusive score.

Top 5 VHS rentals:

1. Don’t Say a Word

2. Joy Ride

3. Heist

4. A.I.: Artificial Intelli-

gence

5. Zoolander

Top 5 DVD rentals:

1. Zoolander

2. Joy Ride

3. A.I.: Artificial Intelli-

gence

4. Heist

Rental video charts provided by VSDAVidTrac.