A grey and drizzly January day in a northern English city. What to do?
After another morning trip to the local medical centre to have a vial of my blood extracted, I decided to catch a bus into the city centre to watch the midday screening of "The Brutalist". The film's running time is three hours and thirty five minutes with a fifteen minute intermission in the middle.
To tell you the truth, I wasn't in the least bit daunted by the film's length. As long as it mesmerised me, as long as it drew me in and held my attention - the time wouldn't matter one hoot.
Starring the brilliant Adrien Brody as László Tóth, a Hungarian-Jewish architect who emigrates to America in the 1950s, the film's director was Brady Corbet who had a big hand in writing the script too. "The Brutalist" has received ten Oscar nominations - including "Best Picture".
The title, "The Brutalist" largely relates to the modern architectural style known as brutalism though at least two of the male characters also appear brutish beneath the veneer of their civility.
Some aspects of the film, some moments, some episodes are very effective but in the end I came away feeling underwhelmed and a little irritated with it. Felicity Jones was too young-looking to play the part of Erzsébet Tóth and when she and László talked in bed in their thick Hungarian accents, I could hardly make out what they were saying.
It is often visually powerful and the background music enhances the drama but at the heart of it the story just didn't do it for me and I will not pretend otherwise. By the way, László is tasked with designing and supervising the building of an enormous brutalist memorial building somewhere in the heart of Pennsylvania.
I went along and paid my admission fee to see it hoping to be wowed, immersed, entertained. But I came away feeling that it had been over-hyped. I expect that it will be very successful at The Oscars which will be awarded this year on March 2nd.
Thank you for this review. I don't like it when a character is supposed to be a foreigner and then speaks with a fake foreign accent - and if a husband and wife are both from the same country, you'd expect them to speak their native language at home, when nobody else is around. It would have added credibility to have the actors speak their lines in Hungarian and add subtitles for the non-Hungarian viewers.
ReplyDeleteMaybe the sheer length of the film is its problem? A more condensed version of the drama might have wowed and entertained you better.
Funnily enough, they did use subtitles at the start of the film and I agree with you that in those intimate marital scenes subtitles would have added to the authenticity.
DeleteYou are brave. I start becoming wary when a film is longer than 100 minutes.
ReplyDeleteIt was a miserable day so three hours was undaunting.
Deletesounds like the fifteen minute intermission was well earned..... i can't sit in a pithy cinema seat for a 90 minute movie let alone a 200 minute ordeal.... my arse woulda been number than..... something that's very numb.... i appreciate that you seem to have taken "one for the team" and we need not subject ourselves to similar - i'll 'kin' download it and store it on a hard drive and probably never watch it - i am a digital hoarder!
ReplyDeleteNumb arses can be soothed with coconut oil Foxy.
DeleteLonger than I would volunteer for.
ReplyDeleteNo thanks. Too long for me.
ReplyDeleteHmmm, I hadn't heard of this movie, think I will skip it.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the review. I rarely go to the cinema anymore, and when I do, I want to make sure that I don't waste my money on something that I didn't enjoy.
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