The Brutalist (2024) Review: The Presence of the Past that lingers in the Future

I literally exited the theatre with a ‘Wow!’ during the intermission post the first half of this film. Believe it or not, this frontrunner for the Oscars with a whopping 10 nominations including ‘Best Picture’, was created on a 10-million-dollar budget and shot in 33 days, despite its running time of 3 hours and 35 minutes. But Director Brady Corbet spent 7 years developing this project. And, it delivers.

László Toth (Adrien Brody), a Jewish-Hungarian architect, successfully flees Europe in the aftermath of World War II and embarks on a tedious journey on a ship to the United States. On arrival, this Holocaust survivor is greeted by the Statue of Liberty and immigration officers. ‘Welcome to America’. He travels to Philadelphia on a bus and for the next few days, he resides with his cousin Attila (Alessandro Nivola) and Attila’s wife, the despicable Audrey (Emma Laird). That’s when László receives the happy news — Erzsébet (Felicity Jones), his wife, and Zsófia (Raffey Cassidy), his niece, are still alive but confined to Europe owing to Erzsébet’s poor health.

The Overture segment is followed by Part 1: The Enigma of Arrival, in which László joins his cousin’s furniture business and are commissioned to renovate the library of wealthy industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce) at the request of his son, Harry (Joe Alwyn). This segment serves as the bedrock of the saga and the subsequent events due to the tumultuous relationship between Harrison and László.

The one good thing that happens? László’s wife and niece’s immigration is accelerated by Harrison, who refers him to his personal attorney.

One dialogue that I feel served as an unnervingly haunting omen is when Harrison asks László, “Why architecture?” László responds, “Are you testing me?”. This statement indicates how discriminated society behaves towards an immigrant, which sadly, extends to today’s world.

Following the intermission is Part 2: The Hard Core of Beauty where the Harrison- László storyline takes a sinister turn due to events like the derailment of a train carrying the constructions goods, allegations of assault, the abandonment of hard labour, heroin addiction and rape. In one scene, an increasingly traumatized László laments to his wife about how they are not treated the same despite what they achieve, indicating the unwelcomeness in their American life.

All this narcissism and false delusions of immigration culminate in an explosive scene towards the end of this segment.

The final segment is the Epilogue: The First Architecture Biennale, the foundation for an elderly László with a glimpse into his life after America, including a retrospective on his architectural accomplishments featuring the Van Buren Community Center created mirroring the concentration camps that imprisoned Toth. The statement that hits hardest is “No matter what the others try and sell you, it is the destination, not the journey.”

It’s definitely an ambitious portrayal of an immigrant chasing the American dream post the horrors of war. I was completely hooked in the first half— the story, acting, cinematography and even the beats/original score by Daniel Blumberg was fantastic. The rugged depiction of a misled community trying to survive was convincing.

However, the sequence following the interval was not in the same tandem as the first half. It contained many confusing and unnecessary scenes, that could’ve been omitted completely or portrayed better. After the heroin-like adrenaline in the first half, the second half failed to meet the same level of adventure. That is not to say, it is not interesting in itself.

Adrien Brody’s performance is phenomenal as usual. He deserves his second Oscar for this performance, which I am confident he will get. This story, in my opinion, is a continuation of his own previous role in The Pianist, albeit naturally separating the protagonists from the actual events, but focusing more on the period during (in The Pianist) and after the Holocaust (in The Brutalist). The journey of an individual trapped in the warzone versus the Holocaust survivor who immigrates seeking a new life in an unfamiliar territory, drowning himself in the woes of his work in defiance of his traumas.

My verdict— I LOVED THE BRUTALIST (in 70 mm)!