A House on a Hill

Very slow-paced, worse-than-average, apparent series pilot movie that obviously crashed & burned. it's for rent on Prime now with much worse streaming quality than SD. why did Amazon bother?

Who hasn't seen the burnt ruins of a once-proud house and wondered at the old secrets that might lie within?

This particular house, however, has the chance to live again when a couple secures the property and searches out the now-retired architect to draw blueprints for a new structure on the old foundations.

The initial reticence he feels is soon replaced with a growing excitement in the possibility of raising the lost structure once again, though it becomes apparent that the wishes and goals of the couple vary from his renewed exercise in architectural creativity. Actually the couple seems to be on separate paths themselves, and they each begin to display a shallowness that injects a growing unease within the architect, dampening his reborn spirit in what might be the last project of his life.

This is a profound tale of disappointments. We learn more about the house's past, and the architect's broken dreams, and the personal hollowness of the husband and wife who had initially recalled him from inactivity.

These are great performances all around. Shirley Knight and James Karen illuminate the screen as usual in supporting roles.