Review: The Brutalist

Official synopsis: When a visionary architect (Adrien Brody) and his wife (Felicity Jones) flee post-war Europe in 1947 to rebuild their legacy and witness the birth of modern United States, their lives are changed forever by a mysterious, wealthy client. (Guy Pearce)

The Brutalist might be one of the buzziest films this year. Ever since it started its festival run, I've heard nonstop praise for the nearly 4-hour epic from direct Brady Corbet. Right now, it feels like a serious front runner for Best Picture at the Oscars. So where did I land with all those high expectations?

I suppose I landed in the middle. I'm quite torn on this. One one had, it's very well made. Shot entirely on VistaVision over the course of 34 days, Corbet does a lot of directorial flexing here. He's taking full advantage of every angle the camera could go. At times, it felt a little too Malick-y for me, but Corbet is someone I've had a soft spot for since seeing him in Thirteen and Mysterious Skin, so I'm not giving him too much grief for being a bit pretentious. It looked fantastic, and the booming score playing alongside it? Magnificent. 

On the other hand, if you are going to make a movie that is almost 4 hours long, you better tie up every single plot line you introduce. You literally have the time for it, and The Brutalist fails to do so. A character introduced as mute from her trauma finds her voice off screen. A young boy without a mother challenges his father about remembering her, which is abruptly cut off. Tension between Lazlo and his only real friend, Gordon (Isaach De Bankolé) is never revisited. And the most egregious is the resolution to a very significant plot point in the final hour of the film. That one is the reason I had to wait a few days to start writing about this. Because I left the film with a sour taste in my mouth even though I was so hooked on everything that came before it. 

It's so jarring what they chose to abandon considering how strong the screenplay is in other places. Why introduce this particular plot point into your film in the first place if you didn't know how to end it? 

The acting is of course very strong. Guy Pearce being the biggest standout. His character is despicable, yet charming. He's a piece of work and I'm glad he's getting recognized for this role. Adrien Brody is also very good, but I felt like I've seen him give this performance before. We start the film hearing Felicity Jones' voiceover, but we don't actually see her until nearly 2 hours in. I was happy when she finally came on screen. I didn't love how her character was written at times, but she was excellent. Her Hungarian sounded authentic (I know they used AI to fine tune both her and Brody. The filmmakers say it's not a lot, but who knows. I'm not a native Hungarian speaker.)

Overall, I do think the good outweighs the bad, and there will be plenty of people who will connect to it on a deeper level than I did. I just wish we had more resolution here and there. 

Grade: B-