The Brutalist | Film Review

 

Escaping post-war Europe, an architect (Adrien Brody) moves to America to rebuild his life and bring his family to safety. But their lives are forever changed when he meets a wealthy industrialist (Guy Pearce).

This was probably the most highly-anticipated film of Oscar season for me, based on what I'd already seen and the way people were talking about it. It seemed like a front-runner for some of the major awards, so of course I had to see it.

I liked this more than I expected to.

I feel like the things most people talk about are the runtime, and the fact that it's broken into two parts (with the second part generally considered the worst).

The runtime didn't really worry me much. Of course there's always the fear that a long film will feel 10 times longer if it's boring, but in general I don't mind long runtimes - though it was nice that it had an intermission.

Though in saying that, I didn't really notice the runtime, particularly in the first half. It didn't feel long, it didn't drag, and the story was told well.

And in comparing the two parts, while I think that the pacing wasn't as well done in the second half, and the second half had more unnecessary scenes, I thought they were pretty evenly matched, and I enjoyed them both.

What stood out the most about the film to me was the scenery, visuals and architecture. Architecture is a big theme throughout the story and the buildings become characters in themselves. Everything was stunning.

The score was also a big thing. A lot of the time when watching films I have to force myself to remember and listen to the score because it blends with the story. With this film, the score was noticeable in the best way. It so beautifully blended with and underscored a lot of important scenes, but also managed to become its own focus. 

The story itself was really interesting, though I feel like it wouldn't have been as engaging were it not for the actors, who all did amazing jobs with their characters.

That being said, comparing this film to some of the other Best Picture nominees, I didn't feel like I could connect to these characters as well as I could with some of the others. Watching this felt like very distantly watching someone else's life, rather than living it with them.

So overall, while I thought this was a great film, and definitely a worthy contender for some major Oscars, it didn't affect me as much as it could have.

7.5/10