I am sure by now if you’re the type to pay attention to film awards or the buzz around fall film releases, you’ve heard the hype surrounding The Brutalist. Because it is a smaller independent film, its release schedule has been spotty despite how lauded write/director and former actor Brady Corbet’s new film has been since its debut at the Venice Film Festival. The time has finally come and The Brutalist has hit cineplexes. The film follows visionary architect László Toth (Adrien Brody) who, after escaping postwar Hungary, arrives in Philadelphia to live with his cousin Attila (Alessandro Rivola) and rebuild his life, his career, and his marriage to his wife Erzsébet (Felicity Jones). On his own in a strange new country, László soon meets the wealthy and prominent industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce) who eventually recognizes his talent and employs him to build a grand community center in tribute to his late mother. The project soon becomes a metaphor for László’s pursuit of Americana.
The Brutalist exited its film festival circuit run as one of the most hyped films of this year and from its opening scene, the audience is quickly shown why this is the case. The tense moment with László making his way through a crowded, panicked ship trying to make sense of it all and find familiar faces through the end of the journey to America culminating in him looking up at the Statue of Liberty, shown unscreen from an upside-down vantage point while a sweeping, triumphant score plays is perhaps one of the most stirring depictions of emigration ever put to screen. It’s a scene that must be experienced on a big screen and is the stuff that movies are made for. From there, we follow László as he tries to gain his footing in a new world, beginning from scratch and looking for work despite his possessing high-level expertise that no longer holds weight all the while trying to manage being separated from his wife and dear niece. We see his struggles in finding work and the human obstacles he encounters from everyone from Van Buren to his own family as they take advantage of his vulnerability and stereotype him as a shiftless immigrant before Van Buren takes him under his wing and assists in reuniting him with his family in the United States, culminating in a touching family photo that finally reveals them to the audience set to another sweeping musical piece.
The first half of The Brutalist is perhaps the best film of the year and the elements that saw this described by many of its first viewers as the great American novel set to screen makes total sense. It is this that makes the meandering and uneven second half of the film so bewildering and frustrating. It loses so much of its moment after its intermission as we accompany László as he seeks to build Van Buren’s grand monument but runs into obstacle after obstacle and slowly slips further into his heroin addiction and a strained marriage. The “Will he, won’t he?” life cycle of the project’s completion serves a metaphor for László immigrant experience; always in a state of flux, stopping on a dime, making progress, hitting a roadblock and then inching forward once more, but never reaching full completion. It’s a metaphor that is poignant in hindsight, but the route it takes to get there feels plodding and superfluous in the moment, not exactly clear as the script and film take so long and indirect of a route to arrive at the point.
The same can be said for László’s relationship with Van Buren, which comes to a shocking conclusion as a result of a graphic encounter that was frankly bizarre in its abruptness within the story. What the two’s relationship represented was also a bit esoteric upon first watch, but ultimately what their interaction seems to be trying to communicate is power imbalance, particularly for those who have immigrated to a new place. Van Buren saw László as beneath him and treated him as such, including during the moments in which he was being generous toward him. László was someone to pity when feeling magnanimous and someone to dominate when feeling contempt or anger. In this regard, their dynamic is captured perfectly through Pearce’s steely, combustible performance and the actor’s ability to portray the character as an aristocrat with a dark side bubbling under the surface of someone who presents to the wider community as a pillar of sophistication. He’s a great compliment to Brody who commands every second of the substantial screen time as the lead for an epic, particularly one as sweeping in terms of characterization as this one. The frustration, highs, and lows of László’s story are brought to life through his performance and thus, so is the film itself. It all hinges upon his performance and Brody delivers.
Ultimately, movies aren’t about your ability to perfectly interpret their meaning immediately upon viewing or trying to outwit them and figure them out as soon as possible. Movies aren’t also about how they make an audience feel about the story and its characters and a good critic won’t just decode what a film is about, but will aim to tell you how well a filmmaker communicated what they were trying to say and well they did it. The Brutalist is a grand epic in a tradition that is hardly followed any longer and takes a big, artistic swing at bringing the immigrant’s tale to the screen. While it does take some digesting, what we’ve been fed is satiating; a story that follows the struggles of acclimating yourself to a land, overcoming personal failings and trying to keep your family strong and united through it all. Brady Corbet displays a strong command of directing both visually, in how he leads his actors, and running a production. This film cost under $10 million but has the craftsmanship of a big budget studio film. Adrien Brody had a tall task in leading a three and a half hour plus film, but he nailed the role and rightly is a leading Oscar contender as a result. He captures László’s plight and struggle and brings out the emotional aspect of his journey. Felicity Jones and Guy Pearce accompany him as strong supporting characters that personify both what László fights for and what he is fighting against as he seeks a better life. The Brutalist’s runtime may make it seem like homework to some, but the cinematic achievement that it is makes it a must see.
Image: A24
