The Brutalist

Director: Brady Corbet
Starring: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn, Raffey Cassidy, Stacy Martin, Isaach De Bankole, Alessandro Nivola
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Runtime: 215 mins. Reviewed in Jan 2025
Reviewer: Fr Peter Malone msc
| JustWatch |
Rating notes: Strong sex scenes and drug use

When a visionary architect and his wife flee post-war Europe in 1947 to rebuild their legacy and witness the birth of modern US, their lives are changed forever by a mysterious, wealthy client.

The Brutalist is a vast film in scope and length. Beginning with an overture, it becomes cinematic orchestral and in its two acts and epilogue cinematic operatic. The screenplay is by former child actor, Brady Corbet, who also directed The Childhood of a Leader. He co-wrote The Brutalist with his partner Mona Fastvold. The scope of the storytelling is complex. It is multi-themed, beginning with Nazi persecution of the Jews and then oppressive dark, concentration camp sequences. It then moves to re-settlement in the US (with good use of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, speeches and translations). He moves out to Philadelphia.

Throughout the film there is a documentary evidence, radio news commentaries, about the significance of Pennsylvania in the history of the US. The central character, Laszlo Toth, is an architectural genius. In pre-war Germany he was found unacceptable to national socialism and was interned, along with his wife and niece. For most of the film, there is voice-over of letters from his wife, still in Europe.

This is post-war US, with an emphasis on American business and migrants making good. This is the story of Laszlo’s rise, not without its many pitfalls and falls. At first working with his cousin Attila (Nivola), participating in a commission from Harry Lee (Alwyn), the son of a millionaire, Harrison Lee Van Buren Sr (Pearce).

Laszlo’s skill in design, his fine eye for detail, his modern furniture style, make a great impact until Harrison Sr bursts angrily onto the scene and dismisses everyone. But it is the central performances by Brody (who won an Oscar for The Pianist in 2002) that capture attention.

The film echoes the American confidence of the 1950s, progress and peace, buildings and achievement.

Unexpected is a sequence when Laszlo and Harrison go to Carrara to choose marble from the quarries. There is a key episode in Carrara that has something of a devastating effect on Laszlo and will offer a challenge to Harrison.

And, finally his wife, Felicity Jones, arrives from Europe, wheelchair-confined, with the taciturn niece. And further complications with the Van Buren family, and with the niece and her fiance deciding to go to live in Jerusalem.

The Brutalist is often grim, sometimes overwhelming, but offers moments of joy, and a perspective on American history in the post-World War II years.


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