Each of the characters have their own quirky stories that feel as if they'll add meaning or emotional impact to the central conflict, but ultimately, they don't.
Comment
11/28/06
The Architect (2006)
11
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:35
Fresh:4
Rotten:31
Average Rating:4.1/10
Consensus: A glum drama that's so self-affected it fails to affect.
Theatrical Release:Dec 1, 2006 Limited
Synopsis: Based on a play by David Greig, THE ARCHITECT stirs together issues of class, race, sexuality, and architecture, then heats up to create potent sociological drama. Anthony LaPaglia stars as Leo, a... [More]
Starring: Anthony LaPaglia, Viola Davis, Isabella Rossellini, Hayden Panettiere
Director: Matt Tauber
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Reviews for The Architect
sapped by sluggish direction
12/04/06
Too 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.
12/15/06
Top CriticI am sick to death of taking the White Guilt Trip.
12/12/06
...A grim little exercise in exorcising middle-class guilt.
12/08/06
Top CriticWhen Tauber finds his focus, The Architect is worth watching. But Tauber rarely finds his focus.
01/04/07
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.
12/14/06
Top CriticFlaunts lame ghetto and dark-side-of-suburbia clichés in self-loathing standstill after self-loathing standstill, none of which offer a genuinely insightful perspective on modern living.
11/26/06
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.
12/14/06
The connective tissue between disparate characters (such as the gay black kid from the projects who befriends a rich closeted white dude) can sometimes feel too convenient, but the situations are consistently well-realized and mature.
11/27/06
... much of what's on the screen feels like a creaky, tone-deaf classroom exercise in mechanical contrivance.
11/30/06
Top CriticPainfully portentous and more solemn than Santa's funeral, The Architect gets this year's prize for the movie most likely to spoil holiday cheer.
12/08/06
Families in crisis always make for good drama. What we've got are the usual good people suffering for little or no reason, and for some audiences, that's always forefends a rollicking good time...NOT!
11/30/06
There are too many characters undergoing life changes in the story for each to be properly developed in an 82-minute movie.
12/01/06
Top CriticThe story’s structure is overly configured, and [writer David] Greig's characters feel less like people than bullet points.
12/01/06
Despite his obvious earnestness, first-time director and cowriter Matt Tauber is ill equipped to mine emotions this complex.
12/15/06
Top CriticAn award-winning architect finds himself pitted against a resident who has to live in one of his deteriorating housing blocks in Chicago in Matt Tauber’s thoughtful second feature.
11/29/06
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
01/11/07
For all the added scope and locations of the film medium, it still seems as stagy and claustrophobic as hell.
12/05/06
It's a compact and symmetrical picture with all its plot points in the right places, but I never found it convincing in the slightest.
11/29/06
Top CriticLatest News for The Architect
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