Movies love portraying architects as egomaniacal braggarts, and this new one—titled The Architect, no less—is no exception. The comedy, which was directed by Jonathan Parker and was shot in and around the Seattle, stars Parker Posey and Eric McCormack as a married couple embarking on the harrowing journey of purchasing a home. They finally settle on a fixer-upper, but a freak windstorm destroys it the day after they close.
Instead of repairing what’s left of the house, they decide to build a new structure from the ground up and hire a modernist architect, played by James Frain, to design their dream home. He proclaims: "As an architect, I have the job of transforming hopes and dreams into wood, glass, steel, and concrete, but if the dreams are not there, there’s very little I can do."
Maybe the couple should have read our Handbook guide Working With an Architect 101, because the process quickly spirals out of their control. The architect disregards the couple’s opinions—"I don't know why people hire architects then tell them what to do ... Often the opinion of the client must be disregarded for his own good"— and hijacks the project, and, inevitably, Posey’s heart.
Is this a realistic portrayal of working with an architect, or are you over the ungenerous portrayal of architects on the big screen? Is it really necessary to call bedrooms "sleeping spaces?" And is the process of home-buying really just a comedic farce? Watch the trailer below and tell us what you think in the comments. The film premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival last month.
- Watch the trailer for the new film 'the Architect' [Archinect]
- High-Rise, a Parable on Architecture and Social Order, Tells a Dark, Disturbed Tale [Curbed]
- 3 Films Where Architecture Informs the Plot—and Characters' Psyches [Curbed]
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