Der Architekt

An absolutely ironic film, the architect makes you burst into laughter with exquisitely caricatured characters that act a contemporary and very light version of Madame Bovary. This film will not win an Oscar nor will it be in the selection of best films of the decade, but it is always good to spend an afternoon laughing at corny scenes and stereotyped discourses. The architect ironizes the imposture of the current petty bourgeoisie with its appetite for high culture. The musical reference to A homme et une femme de Lelouch is just one of the winks that this gentle comedy gives to French cinema.

'The Architect' never reaches the level of either drama or comedy as its sit-com story unfolds with the zest of a soggy blueprint. The plot relates how a pair of prosperous married suburbanites try to paper over their differences by commissioning a pretentious avant-garde architect to design their dream house. In the real world, a village idiot would require only a brief minute with this insufferable narcissist before dismissing him as a fraud. Worse yet, the credulous couple are never fleshed out to anything more substantial than cardboard cut-outs, and their dilemmas become increasingly far-fetched as the film proceeds.

It's tough to watch Parker Posey trudging through this humorless sludge when she's created so many idiosyncratic characters from unconventional material. At this point in her career, she seems better suited for the role of a scheming seductress, than that of an artsy airhead housewife in a lame comedy. The biggest mystery of 'The Architect' is how this sputtering slapstick-sophisticated hybrid vehicle ever got green-lighted.

What is a muse? What is an architect? Who defines those words or rather the inhabitants of those words? Mostly oneself is doing the attaching or rather the defining. This movie is off ... beat, off the charts, off building ... and a few other offs thrown in there for good measure.

If that quirky energy sounds like something that is interesting to you, you found an intersting little independent movie. Parker Posey is fun to watch in this as are her other cast mates. It's not genius but it's more than decent and entertaining enough ... you will able to spot where this is heading, but that won't spoil the fun you can have

Absolutely bugs the @#$% outta me when any movie has obvious problems in this area. This movie is the worst I've ever seen with this issue!

Watch as the robe is removed, and then change of cameras shows her with robe on.

Watch as salads are removed in a huff from dinner and last leaf is attempted to be picked up by fork, but doesn't work so fingers are used...but camera change shows leaf entering mouth via fork!

Sure, most don't care but this is a small thing to fix to make your movies so much better!

Other than that, pretty cool and offbeat movie.

Poor quality DVD with no menu & no subtitles w/hollow sounding audio. It was like a cheaply made high school stage play. Not quite sure of the purpose/plot/theme to this. A couple w/lots of money buy a rundown house w/a great quiet view near Seattle (used to be true 'till Amazon congested the place w/lemmings following the money) and hire an architect to turn it into their dream house. Lots of disagreement/arguing as to design. Eventually it's a design based on a half cut Nautilus shell (I have an almost identical one - very cool), but not too practical. Predictable.