“The Brutalist” is an epic historical drama about fictional Hungarian architect László Tóth (Adrien Brody) who favors a  raw, unadorned type of architecture known as Brutalism.  Directed by Brady Corbet who also co-wrote the script with Norwegian filmmaker Mona Fastvold the film is long (215 minutes) and filled with style that glosses over gaps in time and logic.

Oscar-winning Brody is backed to brood about the aftermath of the European Holocaust and its survivors. In “Part I: The Enigma of Arrival,”  Jewish Hungarian Tóth is separated from his wife Erzsébet (Felicity Jones), and niece, Zsófia (Raffey Cassidy as a teenager and Ariane Labed as an adult) during World War II. In the aftermath of the war, he emigrates to Philadelphia to stay with and work for his married cousin Attila (Alessandro Nivola) who has a furniture business.

Tóth and his cousin receive a commission to renovate the study and library of a wealthy industrialist–Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce), but this is planned by the industrialist’s son Harry (Joe Alwyn) as a surprise. Harrison has been away, but upon his return he’s not pleasant about this surprise. Harrison orders the workers to stop and Tóth and his cousin are forced to leave without payment for labor or materials. Soon after, Tóth’s cousin asks him to leave.

Years pass and Tóth is living among the downtrodden in a church-funded housing where he meets Gordon (Isaach de Bankolé), an African American single father. The two men work at a shipyard and both are heroin addicts. Harrison finds Tóth and finally pays what he owes because of the admiration the library has received from the architectural community, but Tóth spends that on heroin. Tóth is commissioned by Harrison to construct a community center, where Tóth will live and Gordon will work. Through Harrison’s influence, Tóth is able to clear the way for Erzsébet and Zsófia emigration to the US.

“Part 2: The Hard Core of Beauty,” finds us in 1953, with Tóth  greeting Erzsébet and Zsófia to the US. Zsófia is mute. Erzsébet is confined to a wheelchair. The building of the community center doesn’t go smoothly and Tóth’s relationship with Harrison is troubled. When the plot skips forward, Tóth is now in New York City and employed as an architect. Without explanation, Zsófia has overcome her muteness and is married and expecting a child. Zsófia and her husband move to Israel and urge Tóth to do the same.

Brutalism is, according to Merriam-Webster, “a style in art and especially architecture using exaggeration and distortion to create its effect (as of massiveness or power).”  The first known usage was 1953. According to Britannica, “New Brutalism” is “one aspect of the International Style of architecture that was created by Le Corbusier and his leading fellow architects Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright and that demanded a functional approach toward architectural design.” Britannica asserts the name “was first applied in 1954 by the English architects Peter and Alison Smithson to the post-1930 style of the major French architect Le Corbusier.”

The Tate notes: “the term was coined by the British architectural critic Reyner Banham to describe the approach to building particularly associated with the architects Peter and Alison Smithson in the 1950s and 1960s.The term originates from the use, by the pioneer modern architect and painter Le Corbusier, of ‘beton brut’ – raw concrete in French. Banham gave the French word a punning twist to express the general horror with which this concrete architecture was greeted in Britain.”

Further, “The term brutalism has also sometimes been used to describe the work of artists influenced by art brut.”

From the film, one might guess that Brutalism was a reaction to the European Holocaust and that it came from the continental Europe. Yet Brutalism followed Modernism, a late 19th to mid-20th century art movement that was tied to industrialization and urbanization.

And while in English the film’s title suggests the brutality of life’s capricious nature, particularly  for the survivors of the European Holocaust, some of what happens seems  only present to heighten the dramatic effect, but are inexplicably abandoned. Tóth is a heroin addict, and then he isn’t. His niece is rendered psychologically mute and then she isn’t. Sexual violence occurs and then, the topic seem abandoned. While in the end Zsófia tells an audience there to honor the legacy of Tóth, “No matter what the others try and sell you, it is the destination, not the journey,” this journey has plot holes large enough for a cement truck that aren’t filled.

Brody’s performance is touching and yet do we ever really care about the women? What happens to them and their dreams of success? What happens to Gordon? Do we care? Was he just a prop? As beautiful as this film was in its depiction of the US immigrant dream and its sinister nightmarish foundations, the inclusion of Israel as the solution for Tóth and his family changes how one might interpret this journey. Tóth and Zsófia, once oppressed, become the oppressors.  The film ends in 1980. The first Palestinian refugee camp was established in 1949 by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Lebanon. The oldest Palestine refugee camp in Jordan was established in 1949. The oppression of the Palestinians didn’t begin in this decade, but attitudes have changed about the plight of the Palestinians.

“The Brutalist” made its world premiere at the Venice International Film Festival in September 2024. Corbet received the Silver Lion for Best Direction. The film is nominated for seven Golden Globes. The film was released by A24 in the US on 20 December 2024.