The Brutalist (2024 | US, UK, Hungary | 215 minutes | Brady Corbet)
A Hungarian-Jewish man, László Toth (Adrien Brody), was separated from his wife and niece during WWII and sent to an internment camp. He somehow manages to survive and escapes to America. Arriving in the US, his well-established cousin greets him with open arms. After a business partnership (and friendship) between the two failed due to an enraged client, he was forced to take odd jobs to make ends meet. That same enraged client, industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pierce), soon came to László with an offer. He’d discovered Toth had been a celebrated architect in Hungary and wanted to hire him to build a church with unequaled prowess. To an extent Van Buren he gave him creative freedom, but over time Toth’s ego, along with the high price tag for the venture, wore on Harrison and his investors.
Fired and re-hired, fired and re-hired, along with his inflexibility the project seemed doomed with all the demands the brilliant engineer was putting on his crew. It didn’t matter what was best or what the money-men wanted, his vision was the only thing that mattered. As tension built side by side with the structure, both Toth and Van Buren butted heads, but continued to work together for quite a while. Their clash came to a head one night when something happened that would irrevocably destroy any respect that remained between them. Toth walked out.
Eventually the opportunity rose once again to finally complete the project. Toth was compelled to finish it and we come to find out its meaning was far beyond anything we could have imagined.
At a hefty 3+ hour runtime, The Brutalist was intense in many ways. In fact, the director put a forced intermission into the film stating that he knew he wouldn’t be able to sit still for that long so he couldn’t force his viewers to either. There are films that are only 90 minutes long that seem to take an eternity and those much longer that you’d never guess were so gargantuan. The Brutalist fits neatly in the second category despite it’s many stressful moments and difficult subject-matter. The story flows like a river sweeping you along in its swift and turbulent waters. Both Brody and Pierce, with an incredible ensemble cast supporting them along the way, make it a fascinating trip through the minds of two incredulous egotists that have no idea how to work with others due to their one’s awe-inspiring talent and the other’s enormous wealth.
I was ready to really dislike this film despite all the praise from fellow critics. I just didn’t know how my mind and body would be able to handle a movie nearly three times the typical length (intermission or no), especially such an intense storyline. Distraction comes easily to me, especially when I’m anxious or uncomfortable. Despite this, I was enthralled most of the time and I came out the other end with a thoughtful and curious mind; I was pondering the film and its ending for the next couple days. Yes, you have to prepare yourself for the huge venture that is watching The Brutalist, but if you feel you’re up to it, spend that time with it in the theater. The impact with be well-worth the trip outside, even in the ever-lowering temperatures this December is offering up.
The Brutalist is in theaters now