‘The Brutalist’ Review
Stars: Adrien Brody, Guy Pearce, Felicity Jones, Joe Alwyn, Raffey Cassidy, Stacy Martin, Isaach De Bankolé, Alessandro Nivola | Written by Brady Corbet, Mona Fastvold | Directed by Brady Corbet
Dark screens are broken by the reading of a letter, and a scramble of people across the screen, all of them fighting to see their new world of freedom. The land of dreams: America. The crashing brass of an overture fills the room, and you sit up, realising this is something very different. When movies were in their golden age and films felt like an event, an overture would often ring out before any images were seen, or over the opening titles. Think of films such as Lawrence of Arabia, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Ben Hur, Gone with the Wind, and many more. Grand films that feel made for the big screen, that seem to invoke the very voice of cinema. If the cinematic experience had a look and a feel, it would be these films. To see an overture in 2025 makes you sit up, lean in, and prepare. When the first real image of brilliance comes into frame, and the crash of the brass instruments ring out, you have a feeling you’re in for something special, perhaps another name to add to the list of grand cinematic voices.
The Brutalist follows László Tóth (Adrien Brody), a Hungarian immigrant who has fled to America after the events of World War II, and the horrors that came with it. In his home he was a renowned architect, but now he is trying to find new life in America. His talents as an architect are soon discovered by local businessman, Harrison Lee Van Buren Sr. (Guy Pearce). Together they embark on a new design for a town community centre, a design László will not change his ideas on, and one Harrison could never have imagined to conjure up on his own. The Brutalist is about so much more than this however, its themes and ideas are a mixed bag of grand, universal themes, and more suitable themes, ones that linger and leave you asking what they mean to you. A powerful theme that holds a tight grip over László comes from a line that appears within the film, “None are more hopelessly enslaved, than those who falsely believe themselves free”. Questions are asked on what his newfound freedom really means for those immigrants who helped build the new nation they have landed in. After all, what is freedom after freedom has been taken? How does one ever move on from such an event? When those who give that freedom often look for something in return.
The Brutalist continues to play through a number of acts, and a built-in 15-minute intermission helps split the story into two very clear halves. The first is perhaps some of the best filmmaking and storytelling in the last year of cinema. It showcases the struggles and triumphs of an immigrant conquering the American dream. It has flashes of hope and is pushed along with that magnificent score, has real moments of cinematic grandeur, making it feel like a new classic in American cinema. The second half of the film is a much harder watch, not in talent or quality of the film itself, but in the story and what the characters go through. It leaves more questions than answers and those who struggle with the harder ambiguity of such films will no doubt feel the second half a drop-off. But if you allow those hard questions to stay with you, and allow it to fester inside your mind, you begin to realise you have seen something truly special.
Adrien Brody is fantastic in the lead role, and the ensemble cast is one of the best put together in recent times, with two incredible supporting performances by Guy Pearce, and Felicity Jones as Erzsébet Tóth (László’s wife). The cast helps elevate every scene and every idea the film is playing with, and as mentioned, there is a lot it is playing with. The actors involved manage to capture an array of emotions, both hopeful and sad, much like the film itself. In truth, the characters, story, and themes play together and work like a tragic poem, rhyming and balancing perfectly with one another. A story that starts with ups and downs, where hope builds. But soon László sees the truth behind the so-called American dream, and although they were welcomed with open arms, behind every fake smile, is hate and bigotry, and a world that no longer holds a place for men like László.
As a whole, The Brutalist feels like an event, one that will last longer than this year’s award season. A season in which the film has picked up 10 Oscar nominations. Much like last year’s eventual winner, Oppenheimer, the film feels like a throwback to the films we once had on the big screen. Where once, character-driven stories were the big cinematic events. Films that are not always easy and often leave the audience asking questions; questions about art, life, passion, freedom, and the history of the very world we live in.
***** 5/5
The Brutalist is available to watch on digital platforms from today, February 24th.
