The Immigrant

The Immigrant details the trials and tribulations of Polish expatriate Ewa Cybulska (Marion Cotillard) in 1920s New York City, with the character’s difficulties compounded by her antagonistic relationship with Joaquin Phoenix’s sketchy Bruno Weiss. Filmmaker James Gray has infused The Immigrant with an impeccably conceived and executed sense of style that’s reflected in the movie’s various attributes, as the movie’s consistently impressive visuals are heightened by the evocative set design, appropriately somber score, and uniformly top-notch performances. (It is, in terms of the latter, impossible not to be somewhat disappointed by Phoenix’s incongruously muted turn as the sleazy Bruno, however.) Despite its raft of positive attributes, The Immigrant remains a tedious and completely uninvolving cinematic experience from start to finish – as Gray employs a disastrously deliberate pace that slowly-but-surely becomes oppressive. It doesn’t help, either, that the film is generally devoid of compelling moments or sequences, with this absence of standout interludes resulting in an almost total lack of forward momentum (ie the movie is almost impossibly sluggish). The most obvious problem here is that Gray gives the viewer absolutely nothing to care about, either in terms of plot or characters, which naturally ensures that the writer/director’s attempts at eliciting an emotional response fall completely and hopelessly flat. The mesmerizing final shot that closes the proceedings is ultimately indicative of The Immigrant‘s failings, as Gray’s style-over-substance modus operandi stands as a consistent impediment to one’s efforts at embracing anything or anyone within the spare narrative.

*1/2 out of ****