THE BRUTALIST
Architecture, in my view, peaked with Frank Lloyd Wright. Art Deco is the last great architectural movement to my mind. Everything past that is rather ugly. Le Corbusier and Philip Johnson are architectural satanists to me. As such, Brutalism is the nadir of construction, the cold, remote, soulless buildings hideous to my eyes. The Brutalist describes both the title character's architectural style and how his life is. The Brutalist is an apt description of this very long film: efficient but cold.
Divided into four parts: Overture, The Enigma of Arrival, The Hard Core of Beauty and Epilogue, we see the fictional story of Hungarian architect Laszlo Toth (Adrien Brody). Toth has survived the Holocaust and has found refuge in the United States, where he reunites with his cousin Attila (Alessandro Nivola) and his goyim wife Audrey (Emma Laird). Attila, who has assimilated to the point that he passes himself off as a Catholic named Miller, brings Laszlo into his furniture business. An unexpected bit of luck has come their way when business scion Harry Van Buren (Joe Alwyn) commissions them to rebuild a library for his father, Harrison Van Buren (Guy Pierce) as a surprise. Harrison comes unannounced home before the room is completed and is enraged by the remodeling and throws them all out.
Sometime later, however, Harrison has a change of heart when he learns of Toth's past. Now not only has he brought Laszlo back but commissions him to build a center in Harrison's late mother's memory. He also helps grease the wheels to bring Laszlo's wife and niece from Hungary. By this time, Laszlo and his right-hand man Gregory (Gordon De Bankole) are full-on heroin addicts, a way for Laszlo to dull the pain of his life. Once his wife Erzebet (Felicity Jones) and niece Zsofia (Raffey Cassidy) arrive in Pennsylvania, Laszlo continues pursuing his artistic vision, forever arguing with the money men and the Van Burens. Eventually, the project falls apart.
Now moving to New York, Zsofia and her husband opt to move to the new State of Israel while Erzebet continues her journalism career, and Laszlo works for an architectural firm. Harrison has invited Toth back to complete the project, and as part of that plan they go to Italy for marble. There, a shocking act by Harrison on Laszlo leads to a final break. Despite this, we learn that the project was completed but after a gap. An aged and silent Laszlo looks on at a Venice Biennale, recognized for his lifetime's work.
By the time we get to the fifteen-minute intermission an hour and forty-minutes in, I thought The Brutalist was too long. If I think on Mona Fastvold and director Brady Corbet's screenplay, I think much could have been cut or moved at a faster pace. The whole of Part 1 in most other films would have been done in about half an hour to forty-five minutes. Did we really need long sex scenes and a longer sojourn to Italy?
I could not shake the idea that The Brutalist was inflated in its almost four-hour runtime. I also thought the acting was rather chilly and remote.
Much praise has been given to Adrien Brody as Laszlo Toth. It was efficient. It was effective. It was also calculated, mannered and dare I say, actory. It was as if I was watching someone act versus watching Laszlo Toth come to life. As we got to the end, and I saw Laszlo Toth, old, infirm and in a wheelchair, I thought he was overacting. It is a remarkable feat to think one can be overacting while sitting in a wheelchair.
That sense of "BIG ACTING" from most of the cast permeated The Brutalist to my mind. Guy Pierce should be congratulated for having a strong American accent as the patrician Harrison Van Buren. He was good as the proud, powerful patron. Same for Jones as Elsebeth, crippled by the aftereffects of the Holocaust. I did think that Alwyn, whom I like as an actor, was a bit big as Harry, the son who starts well and ends morally blind. Nothing against Stacey Martin, but we could have cut Harrison's daughter Maggie for all the impact that she had in the film. Nivola and Laird too could have had their parts trimmed as Attila and his wife, who accuses Laszlo of making untoward advances towards Audrey.
The Brutalist does have some positives, in particular Daniel Blumberg's score. The music manages to blend jazz with classical quite well.
Overall, though, I was left cold by The Brutalist. The film was well-made, but like the architectural style, The Brutalist does what it is supposed to do while not while not inspiring passion or joy.
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