Even with its theatrical release date nearly two months off — December 20, for those keeping track — Brady Corbet’s massive epic “The Brutalist” has already stirred up plenty of interest, much of it piqued by its sprawling running time (215 minutes, including a baked-in 15-minute intermission) and massive VistaVision film format.
Sounds like a heavy script. As star Felicity Jones shared at a post-screening Q&A of the film at last week’s SCAD Savannah Film Festival, where she accepted the festival’s Spotlight Award, that designation is both literal and figurative.
“Really heavy,” she said with a laugh when asked about the hefty screenplay in the discussion, moderated by yours truly. “It was very heavy, and very well-written. The script didn’t change from the moment Brady and [co-writer] Mona Fastvold first wrote it, through to the draft that we performed, which was two years later. Almost every word was identical. And from the moment [I first read] it, I just thought, ‘This is excellent, and [it’s] so rare to read something so engaging, not only engaging, but so incredibly deliciously ambitious.’”
The tale of a Holocaust survivor (Adrien Brody, in a lauded performance) who sacrifices nearly everything to achieve his dreams of bringing Brutalist architecture to his new American home is stuffed with big ideas and bigger execution. Corbet doesn’t skimp on the emotion. For Jones, who plays Brody’s character’s wife, Erzsébet, that’s what was most intriguing for her.
“I think, at the heart of it, there is an incredible love story,” Jones said. “That keeps you engaged throughout the whole film. [When] it comes to playing Erzsébet, I thought it was intriguing, this idea that this character doesn’t appear until halfway through the film. That was quite a challenge in some ways. And then, thinking more about it, I realized actually she is very much present in the beginning of the film, she is there in László. She informs so much of his journey in that first half.”
As Jones notes, her Erzsébet doesn’t show up until the film’s second half — though we hear her through voiceover, as she narrates her own letters to Brody’s László, in the film’s first half — setting the stage for a much-anticipated reunion. When Erzsébet arrives in America, alongside her and László’s niece Zsófia (Raffey Cassidy), the moment is tinged with almost unbearable anticipation and worry.
“Very much the idea is that, the way that László is waiting, Brady wants the audience to be waiting in the same way, so that when these women arrive, you’re really expecting and anticipating their arrival,” Jones said.
It’s a moment that doesn’t disappoint, as we finally see the woman whose love is often the only thing keeping László together. For Jones, that meant viewing her character as being almost out of this world, landed back on Earth to finally save (if she can) her haunted husband.
“There is almost something quite otherworldly about her,” Jones said. “I always thought of her as being two feet above the ground, … through her trauma, she’s almost disassociated from her physical being. Not that it’s as far as being supernatural, but there’s a definite otherness about her that I found incredibly engaging.”
An A24 release, “The Brutalist” hits select theaters on Friday, December 20.
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