Reel Talk: The Brutalist review

Stars: 4.5

Starring: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce and Joe Alwyn

Rating: MA15+

In Cinemas: January 23

This year’s competition for the best actor gong at the Academy Awards appears to be a two-horse race between Timothee Chalamet and Adrien Brody.

The former for an incredible performance as a young Bob Dylan, which included singing all the songs, in A Complete Unknown.

But, as good as Chalamet is, Brody might be even better in The Brutalist.

The American actor became the youngest person to win the Oscar for best actor way back in 2002 for his portrayal of real-life Holocaust survivor Władysław Szpilman in Roman Polanski’s drama, The Pianist.

The synchronicity is obvious if his second Oscar should from playing another, fictional Holocaust survivor in his latest film.

Brody plays Hungarian-Jewish architect Laszlo Toth, who was forcibly separated from his wife Erzsebet (Felicity Jones) during the Holocaust, and, fearing her dead, flees its aftermath by emigrating to America.

Despite being a prominent exponent of brutalism in Europe (think the Public Transport Centre in East Perth or the Art Gallery of WA), Laszlo is forced to work in his cousin’s furniture store in Philadelphia.

When an opportunity comes to renovate the personal library of wealthy local businessman Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce), Laszlo finally has an opportunity to showcase his talents.

The mercurial Van Buren immediately recognises said talents, and, after doing his research on Laszlo’s European work, commissions him to build a community centre that will also serve as a beacon of architecture and culture for the nation.

Directed by Brady Corbet, the film quickly becomes a portrait of artistic genius, and how the compulsion to achieve perfection almost always takes a mortal toll on the artist.

It also often comes at a cost to those trying to exist in the orbit of the artist, which is certainly true here, with Erzsebet surviving the war and attempting to continue her relationship with Laszlo in the States.

At a bonkers 215 minutes and set over decades of time, this is by far the most ambitious project Corbet has attempted, and he mostly pulls it off.

Much of the credit for this goes, of course, to Brody, who is perfect as a tortured artist, but he gets considerable help courtesy of excellent turns from Pearce and Jones.

As with many movies that tell stories that take place over a number years, The Brutalist doesn’t always get the pacing right, and one could argue the ending doesn’t provide a payoff that totally justifies the runtime (you know it’s a little egregious when the film has an intermission).

But the performances, aesthetic and sheer volume of architecture porn are so riveting, it’s easy to look past this.

In that sense, it’s not dissimilar to There Will Be Blood, another sprawling tale of the American Dream and the nightmarish cost it can take to fulfil it.