The Architect (2006)

Too much of everything

Masterful Cinema

Did you people see the same film I saw?

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

I didn't expect much from this DVD picked up in a remainder bin. I was in for a delightful surprise.Based on a stage play by David Grieg, the story draws together the main theme of Leo Waters, played with nuance and emotional subtlety by Anthony Paglia, the architect and his design of a building project several years ago and his subsequent disconnection from it, reflected in the disconnection from his wife, Julia (Isabella Rosellini) who is completely underused, and his children.The film begins with Leo's son, Martin, dropping out from college. Martin is troubled, furtive and secretive.Viola Davis is the activist in the projects, eager to tear down the buildings and get the area cleaned up who butts heads with Leo.Hayden Panatierre plays the teenage daughter just coming into her own sexuality and experimenting in bars and stranger hookups unbeknownst to her parents. An excellent performance.How all these threads come together, and in some cases come apart, is the heart of the movie. The audience is expected to think and draw their own conclusions and the ending is very satisfying, an emotional confrontation between a father and son.The cast are flawless as is the script and the quick incisive simultaneous snapshots of different scenes move the story arc forward.8 out of 10. Not to be missed.

When I read the synopsis and saw that it was made from a play I wondered "How will they work into a story about a project the requisite themes of repressed women, depressed women, teenage angst, and a guy struggling w/ homosexuality but then giving in?" They do that, and so much more. Here's how: A white male architect built a project some years earlier. It's falling apart (maybe) and is dangerous.A black woman lives there with her unwed-mother daughter. Her other daughter is an honor student and lives elsewhere. The woman heads up a group to destroy the project. Her 5-year-old son was depressed and stepped off a building to his death years earlier. The honor student comes to visit; mom gives her some homemade cake; the daughter throws it away later.The architect's son comes home from college, makes some comments about his sisters sn*tch (his word) and his dad's lechery; then he goes to the project where he meets a gay black kid. They flirt; the son is repelled; but he gets some beer and comes back; they walk around the project at night through gang members selling drugs. The gang members don't taunt them. After much dialogue about gay things, they have (explicit) sex on a rooftop.The 15-year-old daughter is beautiful, has a nice body, seems stable. But she's depressed because she has to go to the mall with her parents. Maybe she also has too many clothes or shoes. Or her breasts are too big.She lies that she's in college, goes to a bar, gets picked up, gets scared, is saved by a ~35-year-old delivery guy; they ride around all night in the delivery truck, she comes on to him, he says no and takes her home.The architect's wife is depressed - her BMW is too new, her custom house too clean and neat, her maid too careful, she has too much money - it's hard to tell. She starts breaking flower pots in the back yard at night and stares into space. The architect puts cigarette ashes on a saucer; she breaks the saucer; he gives her a neck rub; she asks for a divorce.The black kid steps off the roof - perhaps he didn't realize that being gay meant being gay? The son goes out to the project. The architect goes out for a different reason. None of the gang members bother them, even though they've been threatening others. They meet on the rooftop.

I thought that the premise of the movie was very interesting and a good reflection of how living conditions, (less then the architecture itself) affect social interaction and psychology. The activist claims that people in the projects are "piled" on top of each other and I thought it was an accurate description of the reality of public housing. The rest of the movie was less interesting and confusing at times. The mother and daughter characters were seemingly out of place, especially the mother's character. The sexual overtones were likewise somewhat difficult to connect with the story. I think more could've been done to develop what started off as a good story about a compelling urban issue.

Depressing and meaningless pap. It is like one of those French movies where you are supposed to just know that life is meaningless, hopeless and futile without having to say why. I mean, we all just know that it is all hopeless, right?The whole concept of an architect of some buildings being responsible for how the people there act later was also very weak. All of the characters are unlikeable except the daughter, who is also a very depressing character as well. As we join them, all is lost emotionally for everyone, and we are never really told why. The characters just do not come across as being real, no one is that totally depressed and without some joy or some positivity in life whatsoever.Stupid movie, Crash was ten times better than this useless movie.