Jonathan Demme’s “A Master Builder,” based on the play by Henrik Ibsen, finds an aging Wallace Shawn playing Halvard Solness, a master architect nearing the end of his life. He lives in a big house — where all of the film’s action takes place —- that’s frequented by acquaintances, doctors and employees, and yet, everything feels closed-in and uninhabited. He has a wife, Aline (Julie Hagerty), but there’s no spark between them, nothing resembling a loving marriage.
Solness is selfish and scathing, condescending and distant. At one point in his life, he screwed over his friend Knut Brovik (Andre Gregory) to get ahead in his career. He’s afraid of being eclipsed by young, potential competition in the form of Ragnor Brovik (Jeff Biehl), so he keeps him at a lowly position and won’t let him take on any jobs by himself.
Solness is an incredibly successful architect, and yet, at this point in his life, it appears he doesn’t have much to show for it. He’s spent his whole life building for others, but he’s neglected building a home for himself and his wife. Solness’ architectural career has become his entire existence.
The only way he feels alive is when he’s surrounded by younger women: one of them, Kaia Fosli (Emily Cass McDonnell), he hired just so he could be around her and have sexual companionship; the other, Hilde Wangel (Lisa Joyce), a frisky, mysterious girl who had an encounter with Solness years ago, when she was only 12 and has never gotten over it.
Solness is certainly one of the more dark, complex and introverted characters Shawn — a playwright himself and the adaptor of this updated version of Ibsen’s play — has ever played. He’s normally known for doing more cartoonish and comic supporting roles. And yet, he’s able to animate this character in ways only he can do it. It’s a fantastic performance, ranging from loopy and animated to snarling and fierce. He’ll deliver lines with such glee and others with such hostility.
Hagerty, another actor known mainly for comedies, gives a sincere performance as a frazzled, long-suffering wife who’s never gotten over the death of their infant children and the burning-down of her parents’ house.
Unfortunately the rest of the supporting cast, for the most part, is either flat or just bad. Joyce’s performance is a bit too hysterical and over-the-top. Meanwhile, McDonnell turns in a flimsy, awkward performance, and Biehl is just dead-eyed and unresponsive.
“A Master Builder” also marks the reunion between Shawn and longtime friend and collaborator Andre Gregory: The two wrote and stared in the excellent “My Dinner with Andre.” While the two share a touching scene at the beginning, the character of Knut Brovik remains undeveloped.
Overall, “A Master Builder” is a peculiar movie: Demme shoots and stages it semi-documentary style, but the picture also has an eerie, mystical feel to it. Sometimes, it seems like all of the action is happening in some sort of purgatory or afterlife, and the ambiguous ending suggests that. The movie walks the line between realism and theatricality, which doesn’t always work. Certain scenes feel overdone and ridiculous, and particular theatrical touches feel unnecessary.
In the end, it’s an interesting movie, but it’s also very gloomy and oppressive.