Film Review: The Brutalist 粗獷派建築師 (2024) - USA / UK / Hungary
Rating: 9/10
2025 Review Count - 45
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Reviewed by Andrew Chan (Film Critics Circle of Australia)
Tagline: “The Brutalist “ is not merely watched; it is weathered. A film that dares to ask if art can redeem suffering, and in doing so, carves its own indelible mark.
In “The Brutalist”, Adrien Brody crafts a performance as layered and haunting as the concrete monoliths his character designs, anchoring a film that is as much about the scars of history as the structures we erect to outlast them. Directed with austere precision by Brady Corbet and co-written with Mona Fastvold, this post-war odyssey lingers in the mind like a shadow cast by a towering edifice—unshakable and profound.
The film unfolds in 1947 America, where Hungarian-Jewish architect László Tóth (Brody), a Holocaust survivor, grapples with the dissonance of rebuilding a life amid a world eager to forget. Corbet’s narrative is bifurcated, not by time, but by emotion: the first half simmers with quiet desperation as László negotiates bureaucratic mazes and condescending patrons, while the latter erupts into a visceral meditation on loss and legacy. Brody’s László is a man of few words, his eyes betraying a tempest of guilt and resolve, his hands perpetually stained with the ink of blueprints and the soot of memory. It is a role that demands silence speak louder than dialogue, and Brody delivers masterfully.
Felicity Jones, as László’s wife Erzsébet, is a revelation. Her performance—subtle, yet seismic—conveys the toll of survival on those who bear witness to another’s trauma. Guy Pearce, as the affluent but morally myopic developer Harrison Van Buren, exudes a chilling pragmatism, while Joe Alwyn, as his idealistic son Harry, serves as a foil to both his father’s cynicism and László’s disillusionment. Raffey Cassidy, playing their daughter Zsófia, embodies the fragile hope of a generation navigating the aftershocks of war.
Corbet’s direction is unflinching, employing a palette of grays and stark angles that mirror Brutalist architecture’s dichotomy of functionality and cold beauty. Cinematographer Lol Crawley frames each scene like a structural blueprint—every shot intentional, every shadow deliberate. The score, a dissonant symphony by Scott Walker, throbs beneath the narrative like a heartbeat, uneasy yet persistent.
What elevates “The Brutalist” beyond mere period drama is its interrogation of creation as an act of defiance. László’s buildings—imposing, impersonal—become metaphors for the emotional barricades he constructs. Yet, in a third-act revelation, Corbet asks: Can beauty emerge from brutality? The answer, much like the film itself, is achingly complex.
If the screenplay occasionally buckles under its thematic weight—a subplot involving Isaach de Bankolé’s activist mason feels underexplored—it is a minor flaw in an otherwise immaculate tapestry. The final scenes, steeped in quiet tragedy and fleeting grace, cement *The Brutalist* as a testament to resilience.
In the end, this is a film about what we build and what we bury. Corbet offers no easy resolutions, but in the silence between László’s stoicism and Erzsébet’s whispered sorrow, there lies a profound truth: Survival is not a victory, but a foundation. (Neo, 2025)
**Cast:**
- Adrien Brody as László Tóth
- Felicity Jones as Erzsébet Tóth
- Guy Pearce as Harrison Lee Van Buren
- Joe Alwyn as Harry Lee Van Buren
- Raffey Cassidy as Zsófia
- Isaach de Bankolé, Stacy Martin, Alessandro Nivola, and Emma Laird in supporting roles.
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#IsaachDeBankolé | #StacyMartin | #AlessandroNivola | #EmmaLaird