I tend to dislike threads that are overlong and become top-heavy, and when I started to look through the one entitled, " Has anyone seen the Brutalist?" it was mostly people saying no.
So, having seen The Brutalist, I didn't want this to get lost amidst the 100+ people saying no.
I was really looking forward to seeing it, apart from the length. But I kept telling myself that I've seen some great movies that were very long - The Right Stuff, Schindler's List, Reds, Gone With the Wind, Lawrence of Arabia, Kurosawa's Ran, Barry Lyndon, JFK, Branagh's Hamlet. I took the precaution of bringing snacks.
I was so hoping I could whole-heartedly urge everyone to see it. Now, it does happen to be a very good movie. It's the story of a prominent architect (Adrien Brody) who after surviving a Nazi concentration camp, settles in America, hoping to re-start his life. After struggling to find his footing with his cousin's furniture store, a fluke hooks him up with a rich entrepreneur (Guy Pearce), and he launches into a huge project. And of course there are all kinds of conflicts that ensue.
It's brilliant in many ways. It's beautifully directed by Brady Corbet. The performances are excellent, especially Brody and Pearce. The production is gorgeous. The reviews are enthusiastic. My only problem - and a caveat for others - is that, for me, there was something that kept me from completely submerging in it. Maybe it was the sense that I wasn't sure what the main characters were really feeling. It somehow didn't sweep me away as some of the aforementioned movies of the past. That wouldn't matter - except that it's such a major commitment of time.
I guess in the final analysis, a real movie-lover should see it, but it's not for anyone who mostly prefers the escapist entertainment of quickie comedy or romance.
Here are some critics' comments from Rotten Tomatoes:
The Brutalist is a sweeping film that encompasses everything great about cinema, and it feels simultaneously classic and modern.
It is so specific, lived-in and vibrant that you want to spend more time in this world even when it's harrowing.
The details are so intensely well thought-out that you might mistakenly run to Wikipedia to look up László Tóth.
Through László Tóth, Brady Corbet and Mona Fastvold highlight the importance of fighting to keep art alive in the face of the corrosive nature of capitalism.
The Brutalist is more than a film, it´s a cinematographic experience with architectural forms that surround us and contain us in this story.
The story, and the characters in the movie seem very real, as if this is a historical drama. This is a testament not only to the actors, but to writer-director Brady Corbet and co-writer Mona Fastvold.
It’s a story about America itself, a harsh criticism of what the country has perhaps always been, a place where dreams have an equal chance of dying as they do coming true.
The Brutalist is a big and bold story of the immigrant experience and the postwar American dream. It’s confounding yet always interesting — a heartening thing in these cinematically tough times.
Corbet's film is strange inside and out, mysterious, unpredictable, and very attractive.
Overall, this piece of art, accompanied by Daniel Blumberg's incredible two-hour score, is a bold epic – one with the narrative depth and scale of a rich classic novel that will stay with you for days afterwards.
Brady Corbet’s seismic drama reaches for the sky as it surveys the soul of a man and a nation.
It is a movie of towering scale, gravity and technical accomplishment.