FILM REVIEW: Epic post-war drama features a stand-out performance from Adrien Brody
Adrien Brody plays Lázló in the film
NOMINATED for ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, is one of the most anticipated films of the year. Running at three hours and 35 minutes, this period drama is no ordinary film.
This sprawling saga about the immigrant experience and one man’s struggle to rebuild his life is a monumental achievement in film-making, but is it worth all the hype? My answer would be a tentative ‘yes’.
The film opens with Lázló Tóth, a Hungarian Holocaust survivor, arriving in New York in 1947. Desperate to rebuild his life in a strange, new country, he settles with his cousin in Philadelphia.
Having been an accomplished and visionary architect in Europe, Lázló hopes to revive his career in America. His greatest concern is reuniting with his wife Erzsébet, from whom he was separated in the Nazi concentration camps. However, it’s not long before a wealthy industrialist, Harrison Van Buren, discovers Lázló and recognises his special talent as an architect. Commissioned to complete a vast, architectural work for Van Buren, Lázló is overjoyed and instantly inspired. However, Van Buren’s vile proclivities soon become apparent and Lázló learns in every painful way that the American Dream is not so easily achieved.
Adrien Brody plays Lázló with aching melancholy and trauma etched onto his face. Though his performance can at times feel recycled from his Oscar-winning work in ***The Pianist***, it is still mesmerising acting and I have no doubt that another Academy Award is on the way.
Felicity Jones has less to do as Erzsébet, but she is entirely convincing and brings a quiet strength to her role. However, the real scene stealer is Guy Pearce, who radiates loathsome malice as Harrison Van Buren. Hiding behind open arms and charming rhetoric, he is a repulsive reminder of the fascist oppressors Lázló thought he had left behind.
Every technical element of this film is immaculate: the cinematography is beautiful, the musical score is soaring and the acting is exceptional. However, something is missing.
I went into the cinema with high hopes and left feeling somewhat deflated and almost disappointed. While the first half opens with great promise, the second fails to make good on that promise and squanders its potential. But maybe that was the point. As an honest examination of the immigrant experience, perhaps Brady Corbet wanted audiences to leave with an uneasy feeling of disillusion.
So would I recommend watching ? In short, yes. My only caveat would be that the epic run time may overwhelm some. However, it is an arresting piece of cinema that is sure to evoke a strong reaction from any audience.
