Synopsis: The Brutalist is set in 1947, when visionary Hungarian architect László Toth (Adrien Brody) and his wife Erzsébet (Felicity Jones) flee war-torn Europe in search of a new beginning in America. On their journey to rebuild their legacy and witness the rise of modern America, they stumble upon an opportunity that could change their lives forever. Wealthy and charismatic industrialist Harrison Van Buren (Guy Pearce) offers László an American dream on a silver platter: the chance to design a grand modernist monument that will shape the landscape of the country they now call home. This ambitious project represents the pinnacle of László's career, promising to take him and Erzsébet to new heights of success and recognition. However, the path to realizing their dreams is filled with challenges and unexpected setbacks, which will lead them to face both triumphs and tragedies over the course of nearly three decades.
The Brutalist is great. It tells the story of László Tóth (Brody), a Hungarian, Jewish architect, who is forced to migrate to the United States during the post-World War II era, in 1947. In a land where it is neither well received nor welcome, there is no other path other than poverty, precarious work, collective housing and opioid addiction, the only offerings of what would be the American dream. He is discovered by tycoon Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce), who hires him to design a bold venture, a kind of multifunctional space in honor of his late mother, trusting in Tóth's artistic and visionary veins.
The title is derived from an architectural movement and style that emerged in Europe after the Second World War called brutalism, typified by the use of raw and exposed concrete, which gave projects a robust and vigorous appearance, enhancing the natural expression of the structural elements. Far beyond the idea of enhancing materials, the post-war context accompanied a Europe partially in ruins, which required rapid reconstruction. Brutalism met this most urgent need with an architectural style of renewal.
The narrative clings to an important architectural movement as a motto for its construction and character development. The primary frustration in The Brutalist is that we see so little of this vision. The protagonist's idealistic extravagance, which defies the logic of construction and style of American professionals, seems to be limited to himself as a person. If at first what catches the magnate's attention is the innovation he makes in his library, whose representation is, in fact, a good visual taste, because there it was still possible to impose the artist's personality, the construction of The work that will take up the rest of the film will bring very little of the same pleasure. The director's concentration on a kind of “rollercoaster” of the protagonist's fall and rise takes away some of the visual potential that the film seemed to want to show.
When the architect allows himself to be carried away by a certain insanity that makes him insist on a project full of obstacles that seems unfeasible, Brady Corbet tries to justify this insistence on a greater purpose, seeking to sharpen curiosity about the reasons why Tóth submits to people and situations that are unfavorable to him, such as, for example, giving up his payment in favor of not modifying his original plan (which is, it must be said, strangely and calmly accepted by his wife, a person with a disability and in need of specific medications and constant care). The fundamentals themselves will be revealed by the director at the end, and stimulate and surprise taking into account the social and political positioning of the architect inserted in that society that only exploits him. Everything is designed as a historical reparation that he, as a former concentration camp inmate, was able to offer in revolt for all the abuse he suffered in America, which was supposed to provide him with a dignified life. Ideally and thematically it is very interesting, but Corbet's construction, which is very conventional, transforms the asset of his film into something incapable of generating many sensations, even given its appeal.
It must also be said that it is somewhat exhausting that black characters are inserted into narratives as mere supports for the protagonists and their journeys, or indicators of their moralities. In The Brutalist this offensive tactic is repeated. Tóth's friendship with Gordon (Isaach De Bankolé) is a great support, his right hand both in poverty and in comfort. And just that. It is Gordon who, fulfilling the stereotypes, will supply the architect with opioids and share his addiction with him.
The feature film The Brutalist is easy to watch, because the work flows. The film is grand due to its dimensions and the demands of the genre itself, knowing how to make an impact when it focuses on this grandeur and when it becomes less attached to the characters and plots. However, the lack of purpose of this ensemble and the gradual loss of splendor weakens throughout the film. Brady Corbet is a long way from having created a classic, and a long way from having made a bad film, making it, in my point of view, average. As unfair as it is to devalue a film based on its expectations, the disappointment lies in the lack of the essence of brutality and insanity that it allowed to be built around it.
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