The Architect

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.

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.

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.

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.