Earnest but conventional documentary on famed architect Frank Gehry, directed by his longtime friend Sydney Pollack.
Gehry is the man behind such famous structures as the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, and the Dancing House in Prague; Pollack is the director of Tootsie and Out of Africa.
The two combine here to provide a respectable, moderately interesting, but strangely incomplete look at the architect and his work.
At it´s best during relaxed, friendly conversations between director and his subject, where more is revealed about both from body language and personality than anything in the dialogue.
Also revealing are insights into the architectural process, how Gehry and team design from crude drawings to paper models to 3-D computer renderings.
Overall, though, it´s far more interesting to listen to Gehry talk about influences from his grandmother or his experiences as a truck driver than the usual talking heads´ praise or criticism of his work.
Interviewees include Michael Eisner, Dennis Hopper (who lives in a house designed be Gehry), and artist/director Julian Schnabel (in a bathrobe with a glass of whisky in hand).
No insult to this doc, but I would have rather watched a filmed dinner conversation between Gehry and Pollack, which would, perhaps, have been a far more revealing look at both men.
