A Master Builder

A Master Builder

With regard to public attention, “A Master Builder” will be the last collaborative film between stage veterans Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn. What does this mean for most people? Nothing much. But there are some cinephiles out there who might receive such news with the same excitement that a fanboy feels towards a new “Star Wars” movie.

After all, their first project was “My Dinner with Andre,” a 1981 film directed by Louis Malle about their conversation during a long dinner that became an unexpected art house hit, helped kick start the then young American independent film movement, and provided material for one of the funniest throwaway gags on “The Simpsons” and one of the greatest episodes of “Community.” In 1994 they followed it up by re-teaming with Malle on what would be his final feature, the equally breathtaking “Vanya on 42nd Street,” a screen adaptation of an adaptation of Chekov’s “Uncle Vanya” that they had been rehearsing in an abandoned church with a group of actors over several years.

This time around, Gregory and Shawn have decided to take yet another play they’ve been working on over 14 years Shawn’s adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s “The Master Builder” staged by Gregory and put it on screen. It may not sound like the easiest concept to pull off in terms of cinema potentiality but if any two guys could do it well you know what I’m saying. Unfortunately third time is not quite charm as this effort never quite pulls off the trick of making such challenging material feel as thrillingly alive as their previous projects but it does eventually become something worth watching thanks largely to performances from its stars.

Solness (Shawn) is a world renowned architect who despite growing old and disenchanted with continuing his craft still refuses relinquish control over any part both professional or personal life; having supplanted mentor Brovik (Gregory) early on in career, he is afraid history will repeat itself but won’t allow young assistant Ragnar (Jeff Biegl), son of Brovik, whom he knows to be very talented, leave his side artistically if not literally even going so far as employing younger man’s fiancée Kaya (Emily McDonnell) as bookkeeper and mistress; domestically things are no better for him where his wife Aline (Julie Hagerty) has been in mourning over loss their twin sons many years earlier when they were infants.

Hilde (portrayed by Lisa Joyce) is the character who makes everything start to go wrong. She is a young woman, about 22 years old, and he father used to know Hilde’s dad. She needs somewhere to stay for one night because she has nowhere else to go. Hilde says that she and Solness met ten years ago when he built a tall tower in her city. He might have done something bad then with a girl who was only twelve at the time at her house during party or at least promised that he would come back for her in ten years as his princess now those ten years have passed but did she really show up just because of some promise made jokingly by him which he cannot remember anymore or there is more behind sudden appearance?

“The Master Builder” is not an easy play with its emphasis on psychological depth rather than narrative storytelling and symbolism over plot progression so it’s quite admirable how much Shawn and Gregory managed to stay faithful to original work only here what works onstage doesn’t always translate onto screen where too many characters seem talking around each other for too long in their scenes without getting anywhere.

The biggest addition made by Shawn though was starting story from Solness’ deathbed until Hilde comes along which instantly revitalizes him this move adds nothing whatsoever except time wastage and destroys Ibsenian sense of ambiguity beautifully created throughout the drama. Dialogue also feels strangely translated one too many times through an online machine translator with some words sounding awkwardly out-of-place; however if reports are true that Shawn doesn’t speak any Norwegian then maybe that’s why.

Jonathan Demme directed “A Master Builder” but this choice seems odd considering his filmography includes notable features like “Citizen Band,” “Melvin Howard,” “Something Wild,”“Silence Of The Lambs”and “Rachel Getting Married.” Although there are different styles used within movie such as harsh visual look reminiscent old Dogme films during initial deathbed sequences along softer conventionally shot ones later they don’t come together successfully enough bringing entire work alive cinematically as Louis did for “42” or even simple recording theatrical production which is essentially what majority consists but Demme fails at making it anything more than that due to lackluster direction here.

But nonetheless, although it never becomes a film, which catches fire, “A Master Builder” is still kind of worth seeing especially for people who don’t want to watch ninja turtles or monster storms or dance offs because of the two lead performances. Wallace Shawn is not Ibsen’s Solness as he might have been conceived in his most fevered dreams; I see him as more of an “Atlantic City”-era Burt Lancaster. To say that is generous. But he’s so good in the part that by the end of the movie you can hardly imagine anyone else in it.

This guy is a real monster and that’s before we learn the full extent of his monstrosity but Shawn makes him not just watchable but magnetic every second he’s on screen, and even manages to make us feel a certain amount of pity for him amidst all his cruelties. And Lisa Joyce, as Hilde, pretty much goes toe-to-toe with this great actor in her own right; she gives a raw and powerful performance that fully inhabits Hilde’s strangeness and complexity. They bring such ferocity to their scenes together that they give “A Master Builder” the jolt psychological and emotional it too often lacks.

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