Formally, this is as fascinating as anything Demme has ever done even if it seemsunremarkable on the surface. It falls under his more experimental works like Swimming to Cambodia but nowhere near as successful. It’s clearly an directorial exercise for him but one that becomes bogged down with its own weight and words. Wallace Shawn’s slimy performance is a lot of fun as are those of his younger his co-stars, especially that of newcomer Lucy Joyce. Really though, this is just rather overlong for anyone who isn’t completely captivated by the words adapted from Ibsen’s play. At 130 minutes, my attention did occaisonally drift and in the end this just turned out to be an exercise in Jonathan Demme completism. Now that I’ve seen A Master Builder, I’m fairly confident I’ll never watch it again. Or maybe I will? Who knows.