As the start of the new year brings about that annual slide into the awards season, there are often times that one film that rises above the rest. This year’s outlier is The Brutalist. It takes you on a long (215 minutes) and arduous journey and only reveals the motivations behind the main character’s actions at the very end.
It is the kind of work that asks much from its audience. It cleverly sets up the initial elements of the back story with a tilted view from Ellis Island at the Statue Of Liberty. The huddled masses are easily identified as post-World War II immigrants still shell-shocked by the horrors that they endured during that great war.
The focus then shifts to one man, László Tóth brought to life on the screen via an amazing performance by Adrien Brody. We are left to study him and slowly discover his motivations and the angst that drives him into action and overdrives him into obsession. We discover he had a successful career as an architect before the war ended that.
He is given a chance to resume his craft by the rich and inscrutable Harrison Lee Van Buren Sr. played by the outstanding Guy Pearce. Van Buren remains a mystery to the very end. László’s journey is told by circumstance and you are left to process the mostly visual information to work things out. This is hyper-intelligent cinema and a study of obsession driven by the darkest of times, The Brutalist will render you emotionally spent and fascinated by that process.
Rob Hudson
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