"That is so stupid looking it's great," declares Frank Gehry as he gazes at what looks like a cornflakes box model off Blue Peter.

It's not the sort of observation of an architectural work in progress you're likely to hear from our own Sir Norman Foster or Richard Rogers.

But Gehry is different. He's the man behind Bilboa's Guggenheim Museum - a sort of copper-plated armadillo after a run-in with a bacon-slicer.

Controversial but un-ignorable, his contribution to the great buildings of the modern era ranges from the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles to a cancer hospice outside Dundee.

Fans include Bob Geldof, for whom an interminable coach trip across Germany while on tour with The Boomtown Rats was enlivened by the sight of the outlandish curves of Gehry's Vitra Design Museum.

The documentary feature debut of Sidney Pollack, the director of movies including Tootsie and Out of Africa, features the struggles of Gehry - an old friend - to establish a style so otherwordly it should never be commercially viable.

And it is this cosy relationship between the two that acts as both a help and a hindrance.

On the plus side, Pollack is able to ask his old chum questions many interviewers would not get away with and have access to Gehry's unique way of working.

On the downside, things never get beyond the cosy and the documentary could never be accused of being critically rigorous.

Ultimately, Gehry emerges as likeable cove whose off-kilter visions (which are given form courtesy of sophisticated computer programmes)have the ability to inspire and - in the case of Bilbao - put a place on the map.

Tim Evans