Quick Review: The Brutalist (2024)

A film I wish I loved more

Ever since I saw the first trailer for The Brutalist, I’ve been intrigued with how this movie looked. The way it presented itself in the trailers had this special feeling to it and I was intrigued to see how this movie would be. It felt like this would be a film that I could consider a masterpiece. After watching it, I can say that for the first half of this movie, I was really feeling that way for the film and I was excited for where it was headed. However there’s another part of this movie that ended up letting me down and it ended up preventing me from calling it the masterpiece that I thought it would be.

When it comes to the positives, I can say that the first half of this film is extremely strong. The way that the story presents itself was engaging and carried the way of making me care for these characters and their journey. The movie has a slower pace, but I didn’t mind because of how much I did enjoy watching this story come together. The performances throughout are also very strong. Adrian Brody is very strong in this role and I thought Felicity Jones as well was great. I think though that Guy Pearce probably gave my favorite performance of the movie and he does give it his all here. When it comes to the technical aspect of this film, it blew me away in that aspect. The fact that this was made for 10 million really captures how much heart went into making this and how you can make something that feels massive with a lower budget. The soundtrack feels triumph and ambitious. The cinematography looks gorgeous and there’s many breathtaking shots in this film. The set design feels grand. I just love the way that this movie is presented and the technical aspect is an accomplishment itself. It makes me disappointed to say that I didn’t feel that much love for it in the later part of the movie.

While the first half is extremely strong, I felt like it made the second half of this movie feel weak in comparison. I can see what the film is going for as it’s showing the ambition of ideas going on in the first half and then getting into the dark reality of everything in the second half, but it didn't feel like it was able to tell this story as strong as it did in the beginning and the overall tonal shift feels very drastic and underdeveloped. There’s unfortunately an SA scene as well during this part of the story that completely comes out of left field and didn’t sit right with me. While I understand the implications that it was going for, it still felt completely unnecessary to this story and I think it could’ve been reworked around. The epilogue as well is something that I get what it’s going for, but it just doesn’t completely land for me in execution. I understand a lot of the ideas going on in this half, but I couldn’t get behind the execution through it all. I just couldn’t love the second half of this movie as much as I loved the first half. It felt underwhelming in comparison.

Overall: The Brutalist on a technical aspect is something that deserves its praise and the first half of this story is masterfully made. Unfortunately I felt the second half of the story prevented me from loving it any further and I wish I could say that I loved it more. I would still see it on the big screen though because it does feel massive in scope and man I do love that first half. I just wish I felt the same way through it all

Rating: 6/10