The Architect (2006)
Average Rating: 4.1/10
Reviews Counted: 38
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 34
A glum drama that's so self-affected it fails to affect.
Average Rating: 4.5/10
Critic Reviews: 17
Fresh: 1 | Rotten: 16
A glum drama that's so self-affected it fails to affect.
liked it
Average Rating: 2.7/5
User Ratings: 1,291
My Rating
Movie Info
Tonya Neely (Viola Davis) is a neighborhood activist on the south side of Chicago, trying to get her community to rally to tear down Eden Court, the dangerous housing project where she lives. After a family tragedy, she sent her youngest daughter, Cammie (Serena Reeder), off to live with friends in a middle-class neighborhood, where she could go to a better school. Leo Waters (Anthony LaPaglia), the architect who designed Eden Court many years ago, lives a seemingly idyllic life with his wife,
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Cast
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Anthony LaPaglia
Leo Waters -
Viola Davis
Tonya Neely -
Isabella Rossellini
Julia Walters -
Hayden Panettiere
Christina Waters -
Sebastian Stan
Martin Waters -
Paul James
Shawn -
Serena Reeder
Cammie Neely -
Walton Goggins
Joe -
Malcolm Goodwin
Big Tim -
Lauren Hodges
Jill -
Julius Tennon
Arthur -
Lillias White
Geraldine -
Eisa Davis
Linda -
Tijuana Ricks
Bernice -
-
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All Critics (40) | Top Critics (17) | Fresh (5) | Rotten (34) | DVD (4)
Despite his obvious earnestness, first-time director and cowriter Matt Tauber is ill equipped to mine emotions this complex.
Top CriticToo many "big" moments are happening to too many people for the movie to feel plausible, and Tauber tries to tie many of those plots together in a way that seems contrived.
Occasionally a pallid film is salvaged by one wonderful performance. To the extent The Architect will be remembered, it will be for giving a starring role to the exceptional Viola Davis.
Given the fact that The Architect is obviously a work in the tradition of Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams, not to mention Henrik Ibsen, it's disappointing.
Painfully portentous and more solemn than Santa's funeral, The Architect gets this year's prize for the movie most likely to spoil holiday cheer.
Despite graphic scenes of drug- and crime-infested buildings where people are forced to live behind bars like prisoners, The Architect still feels stagebound, inert when it needs to be cinematic.
A well-intentioned misfire...
It is frustrating to watch the film blow some respectable capital on indulgence in narrative frippery.
In my opinion, the film tries to cover too much ground. The plot strands don't exactly coalesce into a tight story. Perhaps that was [the director's] intent, but for me something was missing. The cast does yeoman work but I somehow couldn't exactly get ca
When Tauber finds his focus, The Architect is worth watching. But Tauber rarely finds his focus.
It would bear mentioning that nothing winds up being resolved in the film, if it weren't for the fact that there's nothing to resolve.
What makes the movie satisfying is the fact that its ethnic tensions are never overtly exacerbated, but rather subtly illustrated simply by the comparison of the decadent malaise of the spoiled-rotten versus the neverending nightmare of the have-nots.
The movie doesn't so much tell a story as scream its messages at us in a series of awkward scenes that test the actors' ability to make fake-o dialogue seem like something an actual person might say.
I am sick to death of taking the White Guilt Trip.
The Architect wears its heavy social consciousness like an albatross, and Tauber's plodding, earnest direction does little to wean the material away from its stage roots.
Audience Reviews for The Architect
Super Reviewer
The film has a solid script and some arresting social commentaries to convey. It just feels a little watered-down and I think that comes from having only a handful of characters. It feels more like something that could've been a better stage play; rather than a feature-length film. Still, the movie is worth watching; if you can catch it on DVD in the coming months! It's nice to see little gems that never see the light of day or people may or may not have ever heard about.
On a side note, I happened to see this movie at a theatre that used a BlueRay DVD player. Let me say that this technology is mind-blowing. It's a shame this movie wasn't a special-effects flick because the visuals would've been out of this world. It is the most crystal clear image of film I have ever seen. No pixelation, no blurriness or scratches to worry about. Pure digital heaven.
Super Reviewer
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