The Brutalist
Brady Corbet is perhaps more well-known to audiences as an actor than as a director. He’s had supporting roles in several arthouse favorites, including “Martha Marcy May Marlene” and “Melancholia.” But Corbet instantly rises to the upper echelon of American directors with his recent effort “The Brutalist,” for which he and Norwegian filmmaker Mona Fastvold wrote the original screenplay.
The protagonist
In “The Brutalist,” Adrien Brody plays a fictitious Jewish architect Laszlo Toth – not to be confused with the Hungarian geologist who vandalized a Michelangelo statue in the 1970s or one of Don Novello’s alter egos. This Laszlo Toth is a Holocaust survivor who comes to America and settles in Philadelphia with his cousin.
The story
Laszlo takes a job with his cousin’s furniture business, eventually landing a major contract to design a library for a wealthy industrialist named Harrison Van Buren (Guy Pearce, in his best role in years). Cursed with a fiery temper, Van Buren fires Laszlo, but then hires him three years later to design and construct a community center, complete with auditorium, library, chapel, and theatre.
Now a practicing heroin addict and working a nine-to-five construction job in the city, Laszlo accepts the monumental undertaking, only to be blamed for construction delays beyond his control, eventually fired again by Van Buren, and the re-hired toward the end of his professional career. The unfinished (and later finished) project symbolizes Laszlo’s own immigrant journey as a man who arrives in this country with nothing, and – through a series of starts and stops – eventually rises to the pinnacle of his career in architectural design.
Unnecessary intermission
This sweeping, 3.5-hour epic is punctuated with an intermission, and while it is nice to stretch one’s legs, it’s almost unnecessary. It breaks the flow of the narrative. Yes, the running time is long, but much as with Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” last year, it moves along at a pretty quick clip. There’s a lot of material here, and “The Brutalist” never drags.
Felicity Jones
During the second half, Laszlo’s wife Erzsebet and their niece Zsofia arrive from Hungary, thanks to Van Buren’s pulling some strings with the immigration service. Played by the always affable Felicity Jones, the insertion of Erzsebet into the story provides just the spark “The Brutalist” requires to keep it from becoming draggy. Jones is one of those actresses whose mere presence in a film lights up the screen. We’re almost forced to watch her because of her intense yet personal demeanor. And her triumph is particularly profound here, as the character of Erzsebet spends the entire film in a wheelchair due to osteoporosis.
Erzsebet provides the friendly, approachable façade Laszlo needs to navigate public settings, where he is serious and uncomfortable. Yet it is Erzsebet who exposes Van Buren’s dark side – a sinister side which almost drives Laszlo to madness. Jones’ performance is so good, I wish she had received more screen time. As for Brody, this is a man who won a Best Actor Oscar 22 years ago. He’s better here!
Lol Crawley
And a special shout-out to British cinematographer Lol Crawley, who doesn’t shoot “The Brutalist” as a typical saga film. When switching scenes, Corbet and Crawley often forego establishing shots for more focused close-ups. For example, immediately following an early scene of Laszlo having a conversation with a poor black man and his son standing in line at a food kitchen, we switch to close-up shots of the expensive jewelry and purses of some of the wealthy bus riders on Laszlo’s trip back home. Then and only then does Crawley’s camera back out to reveal that Laszlo is now riding the city bus.
Commitment required
“The Brutalist” is a complex saga, which has been bandied about as a celebration of the American immigrant experience. If that is the goal, I believe it is a subtle one. I see “The Brutalist” as a sweeping epic, replete with some very engaging characters. But perhaps nothing more.
As with other sweeping epics – such as “Gone with the Wind” or “Lawrence of Arabia” – “The Brutalist” requires a commitment on the part of the viewer. But the payoff is well worth the effort. This is certainly one of the best films so far this decade.
Andy Ray‘s reviews also appear on https://townepost.com/