Leo Waters (Anthony LaPaglia), the architect of Eden Court project many years ago, is faced with family's crisis when his daughter is in her mid-teens and his son has dropped ou of the college. He also gets troubles with the community activist.
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.
Bullz-Eye.com
December 30, 2006
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.
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.
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.
Murphy's Movie Reviews
January 11, 2007
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
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.
AV Club
December 08, 2006
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.
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.
