Our Review

               Movie: THE BRUTALIST

   Rating: R, Strong sex scenes, drug use, a              scene of sexual violence, sexualized                        imagery and nudity                     

                            Length: 3:35

           Release Date: December 20, 2024

Jeanne: Director and co-writer Brady Corbet’s seven-year project, THE BRUTALIST, is a work of art. It is beautifully filmed by cinematographer Lol Crawley with a mind-numbing score from Daniel Blumberg. And the production designs by Judy Becker are stunning. All of these are paramount for a good if not great movie. However, when the most important component --- the writing --- fails, nothing can save a 215-minute experience, even with an intermission.

Adrien Brody stars as László Tóth, a Jewish Hungarian architect who emigrates to America at the end of World War II. He was well regarded in Budapest for his work, but he struggles to find employment once he arrives. His wife, Erzsébet (Felicity Jones), and their niece, Zsófia (Raffey Cassidy), were separated from László and are still trying to join him in the U.S.

When an encounter with a very wealthy industrialist, Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce in the best performance in the movie), blows up --- and then said industrialist seeks him out to apologize, László finds himself in charge of designing and building an ostentatious monument to Van Buren’s recently deceased mother. Despite objections from others, including Van Buren’s own son, Harry (Joe Alwyn, who is miscast), he is determined to see this project through with László at the helm.

László Tóth is a fictional character. Brutalism as a form of architecture is not. Perhaps if Corbet and his co-writer, Mona Fastvold, had based their film on a real-life Brutalist, the story would have been more plausible. As it is, the audience is asked to believe that this egotistical pillar of the community seeks out the man, László, whom he threw out of his home for designing a modern library. And now he's going to give him a hefty budget and free rein to construct a monstrous structure on a hill near his home.

I don’t buy it --- nor do I buy the relationship between László and Erzsébet. Granted, when she finally arrives, he is shocked by her condition, but even after time, it’s difficult to fathom they ever shared a great love. Brody and Jones have absolutely no chemistry, so their love scenes fall flat despite the creative camera angles.

And don’t even get me started on the outrageous rape sequence. It is shocking, yes, but I fear Corbet included it for that very reason. It’s gratuitous and makes the viewer uncomfortable, which most likely was the director’s intention. But by that time in the film, I had stopped caring about these characters, so the big reveal near the end of the film becomes anticlimactic.

As I already mentioned, THE BRUTALIST is a work of art. But I don’t need or want three and a half hours to appreciate quality filmmaking. The extraordinarily long shots seem to go on forever, a la Terrence Malick. He is a master at it, though many times his movies put me on edge. Lengthy films seemingly copying his style appear to be the norm lately. Hopefully the trend will correct itself. Not every moviegoing experience is worthy of such interminable length.

Opinion: Don’t Bother!

David: His latest film THE BRUTALIST was a seven-year project for co-writer/director Brady Corbet, along with writing partner Mona Fastvold. The duo has fashioned a movie with a running time of three hours and 35 minutes. Included in this time frame is a 15-minute intermission. But will audiences even entertain the idea of going to a movie that long?

The other potential problem for the moviegoing public is the title. What does “Brutalist” actually mean? It refers to a minimalist style of architecture introduced in the United Kingdom in the 1950s. This makes sense in that the film’s lead actor, Adrien Brody, plays a Hungarian-born architect named László Tóth who is commissioned by a wealthy American industrialist to build a community property that includes a gymnasium, library and other facets that the surrounding citizenry can utilize.

The movie spans 30 years in László’s life, including the film’s second half in which his wife, Erzsébet, is brought to the U.S. to be reunited with her husband. Felicity Jones handles this role beautifully. Her character is suffering from osteoporosis which confines her to a wheelchair, but that doesn’t dampen her spirited personality. Her companion to America is their niece Zsófia, played by Raffey Cassidy.

The wealthy industrialist is Harrison Lee Van Buren, portrayed by Guy Pearce. While Oscar-winner Brody is considered a great actor, I found Pearce’s portrayal to be the most interesting. With his perfectly quaffed hair --- actually a wig --- clipped mustache and impeccable wardrobe, we cannot predict when his character may fly into a rage. When we first meet Harrison, he goes into a verbal tirade about the library that László constructed in his home. This was at the behest of Harrison’s son, Harry (Joe Alwyn), as a surprise for his father. Harrison, recognizing László’s talent, eventually apologizes. 

Brody does a convincing job with his architectural jargon, as well as his Hungarian accent. In fact, he and Jones spent time in Hungary learning the language and the nuances that go along with speaking English.

There is no doubt that THE BRUTALIST is an ambitious undertaking and an epic story, but is its length justified? Personally, I believe the script could have been shortened by at least an hour, with trims coming to things like the explicit sex scenes.

THE BRUTALIST was filmed in the old format called VistaVision which Alfred Hitchcock utilized so effectively in movies like VERTIGO and NORTH BY NORTHWEST. The use of cameras and lenses needed for VistaVision result in a field of view considered “immense”.

Opinion: Wait for VOD