“The Brutalist,” directed by Brady Corbet, is an impressive period piece film about László Tóth, a Hungarian Jewish immigrant and Holocaust survivor, played by Adrien Brody. The epic tale, shot in 70 mm, offers a mesmerizing perspective of an immigrant’s resilience and struggles in America.
After being separated from his wife and niece in a World War II concentration camp, believing they are dead, László immigrates to the United States in 1947 to pursue the American Dream.
László settles in Philadelphia with his cousin Attila and Attila’s Catholic wife, Audrey, while searching for work.
László is commissioned by a wealthy businessman’s son to build a reading room for his father as a surprise. However, when Harrison Lee Van Buren, played by Guy Pearce, unexpectedly returns home, throws a tantrum, and refuses to pay and kicks László and his crew out. Meanwhile, Attila’s wife, who is uncomfortable with László’s Jewish background, falsely claims that László made a pass at her, leading to him being thrown out of Attila’s house.
Life continues for László, where he’s been taking menial jobs. Harrison’s reading room was featured in “Look” magazine during this time, where he was praised for his taste and vision. Harrison
researches and learns that László was a famous architect in Hungary.
Harrison finds László and offers him the chance of a lifetime: the opportunity to design and build a community center in honor of his late mother, to whom he was devoted.
The building must house a library, a gymnasium, an auditorium and a chapel. The partnership between László and Harrison becomes the core of the movie.
The story details László’s rise, fall and comeback, capturing the experiences of being an outsider and a Jew in postwar America. It also gives us a glimpse into how wealthy benefactors can provide support while controlling the purse strings and outcome.
This movie is not perfect — it contains random sexual violence, a disconcerting and disjointed plot, a tacked-on ending and too many characters.
Nevertheless, “The Brutalist” still has an enchanting range of cinematography, sound, lighting, editing, costumes, music and acting.
The cast comes together in the best possible way, just like the gears used on a construction site crane. Each actor served a purpose; many shined without upstaging the rest of the cast. László’s wife, Erzsébet Tóth, is played by English actress Felicity Jones, who channels a soft-spoken, empathetic, but ferocious woman who wants only to protect her husband.
Guy Pearce’s acting is complex, playing the villain in a complicated but empathetic way. We feel his need to be loved, but at the same time, we hate him for the suffering he’s causing László. Zsófia is László’s niece, who returns from Europe mute and emotionally scarred by the war.
While Zsófia, played by Raffey Cassidy, doesn’t say anything until later in the story, we feel her silent anguish and profound sadness.
But it is Adrien Brody who dazzles, creating a character of a lifetime — it is hard to imagine him in a better performance playing a gentle and agonized Holocaust survivor than he did in the beautiful and tender movie “The Pianist,” 2002, by Roman Polanski, but he has.
His face is meant for 70 mm film because his eyes are so expressive, evoking sorrow, despair and regret with just a few subtle movements.
Brody’s acting hits every note, nuance and notion in the film. László Toth is a fictitious character written in the imagination of writer/director Brady Corbet. Still, Brody delivers such a tortured and tormented performance that we leave the audience almost believing he is real.
In the theatre, I felt transported by the 70 mm film. It carried me to a construction site as if I were building, planning and working alongside a crew. I found myself fascinated with ideas or materials that I would never have given a thought to, feeling I was covered in sheet metal, wood, glass, brick, straw and concrete.
“The Brutalist’s” cinematic elements collaborate and outweigh the film’s negative aspects, which are many, mainly with sexual violence, that is entirely unforeseen. It’s almost as if the filmmakers randomly decided near the end of the film that there wasn’t enough pain in the movie, so they randomly threw in a male rape scene.
However, this film is still a masterpiece. “The Brutalist” artfully combines film techniques, like production design, featuring opulent sets in Harrison’s mansion, quick-paced sound effects editing, like the sound of gears grinding and marble crackling, acting in slight subtle movement, like the touching scene when László sees his old renderings and music that features bold, brass minimal themes that suggest triumph and loss.
This epic tale of an immigrant experiencing the best and worst of America is worth the three hours and 35 minutes.