La casa dei sogni

Any movie with Parker Posey in it deserves a chance. I gave this one a chance. Of all the movies I have seen with her in it, this is the worst. Her character is so typical; there is nothing unusual. The part could have been played by thousands of other actresses.

The movie is about the project of designing and building a home and the interaction among the husband, wife and architect. In the movie, the husband is a successful, logical, practical financial person. She is an artist. They are highly incompatible and constantly disagree. The architect is a typical artist; he claims to consider practicality to be important but that is actually at the bottom of his priorities. He and the project (the house design) amplify the incompatibility between the husband and wife. The architecture might be creative but that is the only creative part of this movie. There is very little romance; the story is not much more than three (or four if you include the builder) people arguing. Even when she announces she is ovulating, there is no romance.

The ending is logical and not a big surprise either; in other words, not creative. And yet, the ending is sudden, as if the writer knew that there was enough material and had to end it somehow.

If you're an architect -and I am - this film trots out every negative stereotype you've ever battled in your life and pumps it up to full volume. The architect is the comic villain in this piece: a vain, imperious, pseudo-intellectual, budget-busting, turtleneck wearing wife stealer in the classic Frank Lloyd Wright mode. Of course old FLW also had world-class talent but in my humble opinion he has a lot to answer for with the reputation he saddled generations of future architects with. But I digress. I may have found this film more amusing than most because of the many sly digs at my chosen profession, but it's still a decent comedy.

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.

'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