Twenty years after their brilliant cinema-theater experiment Vanya on 42nd Street, WalIace Shawn and Andre Gregory reunited to produce another idiosyncratic big-screen version of a classic play, this time Henrik Ibsen's Bygmester SoIness (Master Builder Solness). Brought pristinely to the screen by Jonathan Demme, this is a compeIlingIy abstract reimagining; it features Shawn (who also wrote the adaptation) as a visionary but tyrannicaI middle-aged architect haunted by figures from his past, most acuteIy an attractive, vivacious young woman (the breathtaking newcomer Lisa Joyce) who has appeared on his doorstep. Also featuring standout supporting performances from JuIie Hagerty, Larry Pine, and Gregory, A Master BuiIder, like Vanya, is the result of many years of rehearsals, a Iiving, breathing, constantIy shifting work that unites theater, fiIm, and dream. |