Adrien Brody amazes with a powerful immigrant story

Right from the start, “The Brutalist” doesn’t skimp on majesty: a Holocaust survivor traveling on a ship to America and a new life looks up, smiling, and sees the Statue of Liberty as trumpets sound. But his gaze turns and Lady Liberty rotates on the screen, the first symbolic indication in this monumental epic that his version of the “American dream” is being turned on its head.

A toxic tale of the immigrant experience, The Brutalist is a gripping tale of love and hope tested by vice and struggle. In co-writer/director Brady Corbet’s brilliant drama (★★★★ out of four; rated R; in select theaters Friday, nationwide in January), Adrien Brody plays a Hungarian-Jewish architect who is criticized by those who praise him , is exploited. A Best Actor Oscar nominee, Brody leads a stellar cast through the decades of a postwar America that promised to welcome the “huddled masses” but never said anything about treating them right.

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In 1947, László Tóth (Brody) arrives in the United States after surviving a terrible trauma during World War II and the forced separation from his wife Erzsébet (Felicity Jones), who lives with her niece Zsofia (Raffey) at the Austro-Hungarian border Cassidy is being held by Soviet soldiers). László travels to Philadelphia and moves in with his cousin Attila (Alessandro Nivola) to help run his furniture business. A job fails, ruining their relationship but putting László’s talents on the radar of wealthy industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce).

After seeing newspaper clippings of László’s Brutalist-style buildings and his work up close, Van Buren is so inspired that he commissions László to build an ambitious institute in a rural area outside Philadelphia as a memorial to the rich man’s late mother . (While László is a fictional character, his experiences are inspired by important real-life figures in the brutalist movement.) The performance tests László’s key criteria: a job to design a masterpiece, and an opportunity to reunite with his family.

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However, as the film moves into the 1950s, mutual resentment simmers between László and the Americans around him, both elite and working class. Almost everyone looks down on him and, as a selfish perfectionist, he gets angry when everything doesn’t meet his expectations. “We tolerate you,” Harry (Joe Alwyn), Van Buren’s snake-like son, hisses at the passionate builder.

And then there’s Van Buren himself, a temperamental boss who wields power over László whenever he can. In front of Erzsébet, Van Buren notes her impressive English and cruelly quips that she should help her husband, “who sounds like he shines shoes for money,” before throwing a penny at him.

Brody phenomenally navigates László’s emotional journey over several years, capturing the confidence of an artist who knows exactly what he wants, as well as the insecure flaws of a man distracted by drugs and women. (The character is an interesting counterpoint to Brody’s Oscar-winning role as a surviving musician in the 2002 Holocaust drama “The Pianist.”) “I suspect that inside he’s just worshiping himself at the altar,” Erzsébet says of her husband.

Jones is also great, initially appearing like a weak figure in a wheelchair due to his osteoporosis, but later finding new inner and outer strength when needed. Pearce diabolically counters his co-stars’ efforts with pure, hard-hitting antagonism – Van Buren is the absolute worst, a vile menace and an apt metaphor for the modern mogul.

But The Brutalist’s biggest breakthrough is Corbet. For his third theatrical outing with co-writer/partner Mona Fastvold (after “The Childhood of a Leader” and “Vox Lux”), he has created a magnificent film with the scope of “The Godfather” and the dark quirkiness of “The Godfather.” . There will be blood.” The production design is incredible and the locations (including a marble quarry in Italy) are breathtaking. Plus, you won’t hear anything better in theaters this year than Daniel Blumberg’s minimalist score, with brassy themes to match the cinematic grandeur and a solo piano to accompany László’s more thoughtful inner moments.

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Adrien Brody amazes with a powerful immigrant story

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