‘Architect’ too sparse for its story to develop

Published 9:00 pm Thursday, December 7, 2006

It’s not exactly stagebound, but the theatrical origins of “The Architect” are somehow much in evidence in its movie adaptation. This is a film of ideas that don’t quite translate into living, breathing action.

The play, by David Greig, might be considered a grandchild of Ibsen’s classic about an architect, “The Master Builder.” The setting is Chicago, where a 1980s-era housing project has disintegrated into urban blight. One resident (Viola Davis, from “World Trade Center”), well acquainted with the human toll of the place, is petitioning the city to have the buildings razed.

She confronts the development’s architect (Anthony LaPaglia) and asks him to sign the petition. He has two responses: First, he’s not responsible for what happened to his buildings after he finished them. And second, he can improve things with some cosmetic touch-ups.

The script, adapted by director Matt Tauber, nails the architect for his out-of-touch attitude. When he draws up his plans for renewing the development, he works from his models – he doesn’t actually visit the place.

There is an interesting story there, but the film spreads out in other directions, notably following the architect’s two children: a college-dropout son (Sebastian Stan) and high-school-age daughter (Hayden Panettiere, from the TV show “Heroes”), whose displaced feelings for her father lead her to try out her burgeoning sexuality in some bad places.

The son, too, is sexually confused, blindly going down to the inner-city housing development and allowing himself to be picked up by a gay teen (who, in an unexpected quirk, is a big fan of John Denver music).

There’s more, with the family of the petitioner, and with the architect’s fussy wife (Isabella Rossellini), who might become an interesting character if she had more screen time. At barely over 80 minutes, there’s not much time for anybody to scratch the surface.

Anthony LaPaglia, star of “Without a Trace,” fares best, if only because his chunky straightforwardness wears so well. He does nicely at walking the line between concern and cluelessness, never letting the architect turn into a target, or a villain. Now if he had a stronger movie around him, this might be a character to remember.