DVD
Upcoming Release Calendar
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Best / Worst of the Decade
Recent DVD/Video Releases
60
9
xx
Across the Hall
56
Adam
37
Amelia
73
Amreeka
35
Babysitters, The
70
Big Fan
57
Boys Are Back, The
81
Bright Star
71
Bronson
60
Brothers at War
55
Brothers Bloom, The
45
Burning Plain, The
xx
Carriers
64
Che
57
Chelsea on the Rocks
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
23
Couples Retreat
54
Dare
68
Departures
19
Downloading Nancy
55
Endgame
39
Fame
30
Final Destination, The
27
Gamer
50
Give Me Your Hand
46
Halloween II
73
House of the Devil, The
94
Hurt Locker, The
55
I Can Do Bad All By Myself
17
I Hate Valentine's Day
26
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
83
In the Loop
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
41
Little Ashes
80
Lorna's Silence
33
Love Happens
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
xx
Ministers, The
67
Moon
59
More Than a Game
49
New York, I Love You
66
No Impact Man
47
Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
28
Pandorum
68
Paranormal Activity
85
Passing Strange
63
Perfect Getaway, A
44
Peter and Vandy
54
Pontypool
35
Post Grad
30
Saw VI
79
Serious Man, A
36
Serious Moonlight
76
Soul Power
40
Spiral
39
St. Trinian's
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
47
Time Traveler's Wife
43
Tru Loved
61
Trucker
47
Weather Girl
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Architect, The
Mixed or average reviews
Based on 16 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 2 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by:
David Greig
Matt Tauber
Directed by: Matt Tauber
Release Date:
Theatrical: December 1, 2006
DVD: December 5, 2006
Running Time: 81 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for language and some sexual content
Starring Anthony LaPaglia, Viola Davis, Isabella Rossellini, Hayden Panettiere, Sebastian Stan, Walton Goggins, and Paul James
A harrowing and ultimately human story of two very different families. Leo Waters (Lapaglia) is an idealistic architect and patriarch of an affluent, suburban Chicago family. Tonya Neeley (Davis) is a pragmatic activist who is trying to keep her family together while living in one of the city’s most drug and crime-infested public housing projects. As part of her ongoing campaign to have the projects torn down and decent housing built in its place, Tonya decides that the one signature she needs more than any other on her petition is that of the projects’ original architect, Leo Waters. (Magnolia Pictures)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Premiere Aaron Hillis
A riveting urban drama that tackles a myriad of sociopolitical issues -- conflicts of race, sex, class, marriage and politics -- without spreading itself thin.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Ella Taylor
In her (Viola Davis) umpteenth turn as a strong ghetto mother, she is the life force that lifts Matt Tauber's workaday movie The Architect into an experience to savor.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
It's a fairly well-written piece and an even better acted one. And these days, when independent films are increasingly the salvation of the serious American dramatic movie, it's heartening to see something like The Architect, which tries to reawaken a major American dramatic tradition and sometimes succeeds.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Michael Hardy
Perhaps urban-planning solutions are too much to expect from a Friday night at the movies, but in a film this ambitious, the evident lack of thought put into the problem is disappointing. As any architect knows, it's easier to tear down than to build up.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jack Mathews
There are too many characters undergoing life changes in the story for each to be properly developed in an 82-minute movie. But for the most part, the actors get the work done.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
LaPaglia and Davis deliver top-notch performances that go a long way toward offsetting the material's didacticism.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck
While it provides a sometimes thoughtful examination of modern sociological issues, The Architect unfortunately succumbs to melodrama in its depiction of its troubled characters.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein
Still feels stagebound, inert when it needs to be cinematic.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano
Despite an intriguing premise in which the architect of a housing project is confronted by a resident-turned-activist who wants his help in getting the place torn down, Matt Tauber's The Architect feels schematic and contrived.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
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.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
Deteriorates from a potentially enlightening exploration of urban development and class conflict into a preposterous melodrama.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Every character in The Architect is crazily stuccoed with crisis.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin
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.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Steve Davis
A movie designed without a proper foundation -- it feels as though it might crumble at any minute.
Read Full Review >New York Post Kyle Smith
Though nothing much happens, all of the actors get to do lots of teary close-ups.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 3.5 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Rit B gave it a4:
The Architect is like the framework of a building, something that looks like it has potential but which can’t be used until it is finished. The characters in this movie need to be fleshed out with more detail. Everyone is unhappy, everyone has a problem but it is never made clear as to why they are unhappy, and what caused their problems. The acting was decent but the story lacked cohesiveness and content.
