"The Brutalist" is a 3 1/2 hour exploration of brutal people in brutal times with brutally exacting imaginations in a visually fuzzy America from the 1950's-1980's. That would be fitting for an American epic but it is too shallow, too scattershot to make enough of an impact.
On one hand, this is the story of the American Dream from the subjective view of a struggling and talented architect who had survived the Nazi holocaust. He makes his mark in America slowly (working for his friend in a furniture store) and eventually migrates with the help of a boorish, egotistical millionaire industrialist named Van Buren (Guy Pearce) who hopes this architect can help build a massive, ambitious project - a concrete building with four large separate sections including a chapel. This architect, László Tóth, a Hungarian-Jew (played with resplendent charisma by Adrien Brody), has even more ambitious designs on such a building - adding an opening on the top roof section that allows light to filter in and show an illuminated cross in the chapel.
On the other hand, this is also the story of László Tóth's long-suffering wife, Erzsébet Tóth (a brilliant Felicity Jones) who is trying to come to the United States with her largely mute niece (Raffey Cassidy). When Erzsébet does arrive, she's wheelchair-bound thanks to osteoporosis caused by famine. The couple and the niece live together on the work site; issues with László's impotency and heroin use cause disturbances in their marriage yet they are committed to each other.
The first half of "The Brutalist" is fairly potent and sets up the loss of control László has in latter years in the second half of the film (separated by the rare use of an actual intermission), especially the difficulties with Van Buren who turns out be far more rotten than anyone thought. Unfortunately, the film never exactly engaged me or involved me. The characters are credibly portrayed by everyone involved yet I was not persuaded to care about them. I found myself adrift throughout, never getting caught up in their plight or whatever dramatic situations were transpiring. The movie is high drama technically yet it's also inert in execution. The construction of these buildings and the intricate plans are not delivered with any real excitement or energy - everything is just enervatingly presented despite the energetic performances. The towering music score by Daniel Blumberg has real-buildup but it does not correspond to the images.
Speaking of images, the cinematography by Lol Crawley is shot using the rarely used Vista-Vision process though at the screening I saw it at, it had muted colors and extremely low-light levels. That may be the intention, of course, but why use the crispness of Vista-Vision that is meant to be more expressive than impressionistic? There were times that I could not make head or tail of what was happening on screen and for an epic about America post-WWII and the immigrant experience, that struck me as the wrong approach. Some scenes work well with this visual choice (the dance party in a catacomb-like dwelling; the wide vistas of the mountain range where László and Van Buren witness the beauty of marble) yet all interior scenes are too underlit for my tastes. It may not be the underexposed look of say a different kind of immigrant story like the epic of "The Godfather Part II" but it still looked dank minus any true focus or clearer depth-of-field.
"The Brutalist" has some scenes of raw power yet it all registers as shallow and morose without the juice to spice it up. A story like this needs magnetism, some rocking cinematic feeling in those vistas and the actors are up to the challenge but the moody, muddy look lend it an overall leaden feel that shouldn't be there.
