25/14
Featured in The 7PM Project: Episode aired December 10, 2024 (2024)
Tale
When visionary architect László Toth and his wife Erzsébet flee post-war Europe in 1947 to rebuild their legacy and witness the birth of modern America, their lives are forever changed by a mysterious and wealthy client. Filming took place over a total of 34 days between March 16 and May 5, 2023. It was shot in Budapest, Hungary and Carrara, Italy. Harrison Lee Van Buren Sr.: When dogs get sick, they usually bite the hand of whoever fed them, until someone mercifully puts them down. This film is ambitious and has some big ideas, but ultimately too many big ideas that end up canceling each other out.
It’s also very long
At the beginning of the film, I expected it to be the story of a concentration camp survivor. And it is, but it’s also more complicated than that. The protagonist (played by Adrian Brody) is gradually revealed to have more layers to his personality than we thought. At first we see him as a refugee at the end of World War II doing manual labor in a relative’s small furniture factory to survive, but then we realize that he has a brilliant and creative mind that functions at a much higher level than his worldly position would indicate. He depends on other people for his survival.
He is treated badly by virtually everyone
At first they seem to be kindly benefactors, but later they turn out to be truly slimy individuals. If something goes wrong, he is invariably blamed for it and sent away. He realizes that as an outsider, an unwelcome foreigner, he is at an extreme disadvantage. The kindness of strangers turns out not to be so kind after all. But when his former pre-war stardom in the field of architecture becomes known, suddenly those who looked down on him and treated him like dirt begin to fawn over him because they want the prestige of being associated with him.
I don’t feel like I could give more details adequately without spoilers
Then there’s his sexual impotence, a budding heroin addiction, and a wife trapped in Europe by the endless bureaucracy of the repatriation process. It ends up being like QUEER in that it’s highly episodic and the episodes don’t quite fit together. It’s also like QUEER in that, intriguingly enough, many of the male characters can’t seem to keep their hands off Brody’s character, even though he never reacts to it. This is a tough movie because there’s so much good in it, despite a plot that just doesn’t hold up. Its greatest assets are the evocative art direction, the cinematography, the costumes, and the performances by Brody and the actress who plays his wife.
There’s a lot of potential here that simply wasn’t tapped
(It’s also true that they get the best material; the other characters are straight out of 19th-century melodrama—a sweet, naïve orphan, a “friend” who leads good people into bad habits, and villains who do all sorts of dastardly things but wear capes and twirl mustaches.) Overall, the film felt “underdeveloped” to me. From Alien: Romulus to Road House, check out some of our favorite 2024 posters.