Very slow-paced, worse-than-average, apparent series pilot movie that obviously crashed & burned. it's for rent on Prime now with much worse streaming quality than SD. why did Amazon bother?
3 Reviews
below-par TV fare
jh_thorn2 August 2020
A house of memories.
Hup234!18 May 2004
Who hasn't seen the burnt ruins of a once-proud house and wondered at the old secrets that might lie within?
This particular house, however, has the chance to live again when a couple secures the property and searches out the now-retired architect to draw blueprints for a new structure on the old foundations.
The initial reticence he feels is soon replaced with a growing excitement in the possibility of raising the lost structure once again, though it becomes apparent that the wishes and goals of the couple vary from his renewed exercise in architectural creativity. Actually the couple seems to be on separate paths themselves, and they each begin to display a shallowness that injects a growing unease within the architect, dampening his reborn spirit in what might be the last project of his life.
This is a profound tale of disappointments. We learn more about the house's past, and the architect's broken dreams, and the personal hollowness of the husband and wife who had initially recalled him from inactivity.
These are great performances all around. Shirley Knight and James Karen illuminate the screen as usual in supporting roles.
This particular house, however, has the chance to live again when a couple secures the property and searches out the now-retired architect to draw blueprints for a new structure on the old foundations.
The initial reticence he feels is soon replaced with a growing excitement in the possibility of raising the lost structure once again, though it becomes apparent that the wishes and goals of the couple vary from his renewed exercise in architectural creativity. Actually the couple seems to be on separate paths themselves, and they each begin to display a shallowness that injects a growing unease within the architect, dampening his reborn spirit in what might be the last project of his life.
This is a profound tale of disappointments. We learn more about the house's past, and the architect's broken dreams, and the personal hollowness of the husband and wife who had initially recalled him from inactivity.
These are great performances all around. Shirley Knight and James Karen illuminate the screen as usual in supporting roles.
Intelligent, quiet story of the restoration of a house and the man who designed it.
roland-10412 October 2006
Warning: Spoilers
It doesn't take a PhD in the semiotics of dream interpretation to know that when the image of a house appears while we slumber, it often represents one's own person (the basement being the subconscious, the main floor our worldly aspect, the upper floors more lofty spiritual or idealistic leanings, and so on).
Writer-director Chuck Workman - best known for his feature-length documentaries ("Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol"; "The Source") and short montages created for the Academy Awards shows and others - has employed this symbolic equation to create a soulful, deceptively simple, carefully woven narrative about the restoration of both a ruined house and the equally ruined, aging architect who had designed it.
The life and dreams of Harry Mayfield (played by the first rate actor, Philip Baker Hall) were all but destroyed years ago. He had designed and had built a house high on a hill, overlooking the Pacific above Malibu, for his wife and son. But one day the place caught fire, entrapping and killing Harry's son. As is often the case after such a tragedy, Harry's marriage did not survive this loss. He abandoned his practice in favor of a teaching job, and subsequently has merely subsisted, his life empty except for quiet despair.
Now a yuppie couple, the Banks's, comes along, want to buy the property and, although only the cement slab and an inverted V-shaped iron archway remain as vestiges of the original house, they also want Harry to preside over rebuilding of the structure as it used to be. Well, not quite. After Harry creates a model from the old drawings, Mrs. Banks wants changes that Harry thinks would violate the original design.
Her friend Gaby (Laura San Giacomo), a filmmaker, who has tagged along to see the model, senses Harry's frustration and feels similarly. Gaby and Harry make a connection, one based on their aesthetic sensibilities, not romance. This connection energizes Harry's efforts to try to accommodate Mrs. Banks' wishes and move ahead with the project. He agrees to let Gaby shoot a film about him and his work.
All seems to go well at first. And Harry definitely has a quicker step. But midway through framing of the house, the Banks's have a falling out and separate. The project is stalled. Perhaps - make that probably - indefinitely. Harry initially is crushed. He spends a tortured night sitting on the stoop of the place, exposed, in a rainstorm. (Mr. Workman, who was present for this screening, said in response to a question that he wanted the rain to represent a "cleansing," presumably referring to Harry's still soiled psyche.)
The following day he feels better, buoyed up some by a positive encounter with a neighbor, who tells Harry that he - the neighbor - used to think Harry was arrogant. Harry replies with a quote from Frank Lloyd Wright: "Better to be arrogant than ignorant." Gaby drops by the site and gives Harry a hug, thanking him for the inspiration for her own work she had gotten from him. We leave Harry with some confidence that he has found himself again, that his "house," unlike the stalled structure nearby, is continuing to be revived.
This pensive, slowly paced film is psychologically sound, beautifully filmed and edited, and well acted. With Shirley Knight as Harry's former wife, Mercedes, and Rebecca Staab as Kate Banks. Shown almost exclusively at festivals, this fine film surely deserves wider distribution. My grades: 7.5/10 (B+) (Seen at the Idaho International Film Festival, 09/30/06)
Writer-director Chuck Workman - best known for his feature-length documentaries ("Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol"; "The Source") and short montages created for the Academy Awards shows and others - has employed this symbolic equation to create a soulful, deceptively simple, carefully woven narrative about the restoration of both a ruined house and the equally ruined, aging architect who had designed it.
The life and dreams of Harry Mayfield (played by the first rate actor, Philip Baker Hall) were all but destroyed years ago. He had designed and had built a house high on a hill, overlooking the Pacific above Malibu, for his wife and son. But one day the place caught fire, entrapping and killing Harry's son. As is often the case after such a tragedy, Harry's marriage did not survive this loss. He abandoned his practice in favor of a teaching job, and subsequently has merely subsisted, his life empty except for quiet despair.
Now a yuppie couple, the Banks's, comes along, want to buy the property and, although only the cement slab and an inverted V-shaped iron archway remain as vestiges of the original house, they also want Harry to preside over rebuilding of the structure as it used to be. Well, not quite. After Harry creates a model from the old drawings, Mrs. Banks wants changes that Harry thinks would violate the original design.
Her friend Gaby (Laura San Giacomo), a filmmaker, who has tagged along to see the model, senses Harry's frustration and feels similarly. Gaby and Harry make a connection, one based on their aesthetic sensibilities, not romance. This connection energizes Harry's efforts to try to accommodate Mrs. Banks' wishes and move ahead with the project. He agrees to let Gaby shoot a film about him and his work.
All seems to go well at first. And Harry definitely has a quicker step. But midway through framing of the house, the Banks's have a falling out and separate. The project is stalled. Perhaps - make that probably - indefinitely. Harry initially is crushed. He spends a tortured night sitting on the stoop of the place, exposed, in a rainstorm. (Mr. Workman, who was present for this screening, said in response to a question that he wanted the rain to represent a "cleansing," presumably referring to Harry's still soiled psyche.)
The following day he feels better, buoyed up some by a positive encounter with a neighbor, who tells Harry that he - the neighbor - used to think Harry was arrogant. Harry replies with a quote from Frank Lloyd Wright: "Better to be arrogant than ignorant." Gaby drops by the site and gives Harry a hug, thanking him for the inspiration for her own work she had gotten from him. We leave Harry with some confidence that he has found himself again, that his "house," unlike the stalled structure nearby, is continuing to be revived.
This pensive, slowly paced film is psychologically sound, beautifully filmed and edited, and well acted. With Shirley Knight as Harry's former wife, Mercedes, and Rebecca Staab as Kate Banks. Shown almost exclusively at festivals, this fine film surely deserves wider distribution. My grades: 7.5/10 (B+) (Seen at the Idaho International Film Festival, 09/30/06)
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