‘The Brutalist’ Review

With ‘The Brutalist’, director Brady Corbet strives for greatness, attempting to create a Great American Film that captures a certain truth about the pain and struggle to achieve great things, and the happy stories we tell ourselves about these struggles years later. While it falls short of delivering on all of its ambition, ‘The Brutalist’ is a thought provoking drama powered by fantastic acting and big ideas.

The film opens with László Tóth (Adrien Brody), a Hungarian Holocaust survivor, arriving in New York City in the 1940s. He is alone, his wife and niece are still behind in Europe, awaiting their own opportunities to join him in the United States. László makes his way to Philadelphia where his cousin Attila (Alessandro Nivola) owns a furniture store with his wife Audrey (Emma Laird). They offer László work, and we soon learn that he was a successful architect and designer, renowned throughout Europe, before the war. It doesn’t take long for his unique and challenging designs to catch the attention of a wealthy benefactor in Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce) and his arrogant son, Harry (Joe Alwyn).

Adrien Brody is the engine that makes this movie work. He is in virtually every scene, expressing a range of conflicting emotions for this traumatized genius : frustration, cockiness, love and turmoil. László is a broken man in a broken world, yet he is steadfast in his artistic visions, influencing others with his undying passion for his work. The rest of the cast matches Brody’s quality throughout this epic. Guy Pearce as Harrison is exceptional, depicting the extreme mood swings of a great and powerful man. He will go from charming and vulnerable in one scene, bringing his employees closer to him, and then lashing out violently in the very next moment if his mood suits it. Felicity Jones as Erzsébet, László’s wife, is strong and supportive of her husband even as she struggles with her own trauma. It is a delicate but profound performance of an intelligent and formidable woman, dealing with her pain and suffering while trying to persist in a world dominated by tempestuous men.

The technical aspects of this film are astounding, including Daniel Blumberg’s incredible score and Lol Crawley’s cinematography. This film is an epic in every sense, with the story beginning in the 1940s and ending in the 1980s. With a runtime of over 3 hours, an overture, and an intermission, Brady Corbet is trying to capture the sweep and grandeur of American history. This is a long movie, but it packs in so many thoughts about immigrants’ role in building America, the relationship between art and commerce, how the rich and powerful use and abuse the poor, creative class to build artistic visions that they themselves are incapable of, and then seek recognition themselves.

In its scope and thematic ambition, ‘The Brutalist’ is a film that merits respect and conversation. The second half of the film includes some gratuitous plot developments and narrative choices that undermine the overarching message, resulting in a disappointing anticlimax even as the final shot continues to haunt me. Despite these demerits in the late going, ‘The Brutalist’ is an emotionally and intellectually rich film that will stick with you long after the credits roll.

The Brutalist
Rated R for strong sexual content, graphic nudity, rape, drug use and some strong language.
Running Time: 3 hours and 34 minutes

Director Brady Corbet
Writers Brady Corbet, Mona Fastvold
Stars Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn, Raffey Cassidy, Stacy Martin, Emma Laird, Isaach de Bankolé, Alessandro Nivola
Rating R
Running Time 215 Minutes
Genres Drama