The Architect

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.

First, the bad (to get that out of the way). The characters in this movie are very cliché. Most people in real life are a combination of characteristics (say, creative and practical), not so these people. They are extreme.

Also - the ending of this movie is quite unsatisfying. I kept expecting....more. There was this build up, build up, build up....and then...fizzle, as though the writer just wanted to be "done with it all."

Now, the good! I laughed! This movie is weird and quirky (with the look, feel and sound of an independent film)..and FUNNY! However, it's not funny in the usual slap-sticky, juvenile or vulgar way that so many comedies TRY to be funny these days. It's actually funny in an INTELLIGENT way - imagine that!

In fact, the movie has a more "adult" feel then most current movies which seem geared for the under 25 age group. (I always wondered what happened to Parker Posey)!

In the movie, the couple hires an architect to design their new waterfront home. Bear in mind, the couple's marriage seems fine (mostly, except you do see some "handwriting on the wall indicating lingering problems) Until....well, THE ARCHITECT enters into their lives.

The architect is an odd off-beat character who has plenty of his OWN artistic ideas (thereby raising the cost of the project every time he opens his mouth). The wife, in the movie, is enthralled. Her more practical husband? Not so much, thus setting the stage for those marital problems we saw coming.

Most of the humor in this movie lies squarely with the character of the architecture and his overly artistic and impractical view of architecture and the world at large. Anybody who has such extreme views plays well in a comedic sense, and this guy is no exception.

For the most part, the writing and acting in this movie are quite good (especially for a movie I had never heard of before). As I said, though, unfortunately, the ending is a bit lackluster (oh well).

My advice? This movie is fun (and interesting) to watch ONCE, just because it is so unique and...weirdly funny! Although I must admit, I would not buy this movie - unless, maybe, I could find it really cheap.

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

'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.

There are two characters in this movie. The husband needed to be fleshed out, or he was just an annoying one-dimensional sideshow. There was also a baby that came along and was ignored. There was a twist at the end. Even the obvious romance was glossed over. If the film was not gonna give us anything else, that would have sufficed. No. One shag and they don't talk until the end. When the twist all happens in two minutes. I didn't have a problem with the things the architect says, but this isn't a message about art either, because that was also not given time. Just a bit more footage would have made it at least make sense. Surely savaged by the editor, to make it quippy and funny, when it didn't need to be.