Is Anything Really Ours? The Brutalist Analysis

Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist has quickly become one of the most pleasant surprises of 2024. Praised by both critics and viewers for its immense ambition and accomplishments on a shockingly low budget, this film has already received dozens of awards, been nominated for 10 Oscars, and earned over $25 million at the box office (despite having a 3 and a half-hour runtime on a limited release). Like the main subject of the film, The Brutalist has found success in an uphill battle.

The movie focuses on Laszlo Toth, a successful Hungarian-Jewish architect who was forced to escape to the United States during the beginning of the Holocaust, leaving behind his wife and niece after being separated in the concentration camps. Desperate to work and make a living in this new land, he takes up an offer from a wealthy American businessman to design a grand building of the likes that nobody has seen before. While the film obviously is about the classic “immigrant’s story”, the relationship between Laszlo and the businessman forces the audience to ask themselves a question: Is anything really ours? Is an artist’s creations truly theirs if they must adhere to their financer's wishes? Is one’s time truly theirs if they spend it on someone else’s dreams? Does America, promised to be the land of opportunity, even belong to the immigrants who built it at all? While the film presents these questions in a mature and creative way, the script starts to go off the rails in the second half, putting the overall quality of the project into reconsideration.

Also, for those of you who have already seen the film or read the script, you’ll notice that The Brutalist does not follow the traditional 3-act structure. Instead, the film is broken into two very distinct parts, as well as an overture and an epilogue. For that reason, this script is going to be broken down slightly differently than past analyses on the Kinolime Blog.

Read our latest script breakdowns here.

OPENING IMAGE

The movie opens with a title screen presenting the word “Overture” over the sounds of a ship crashing through the waves at sea. The film then cuts to a still shot of a young woman, Zsofia (later revealed to be Laszlo’s niece) as she is interrogated by a Border Patrol Officer in a small room. The sounds of freedom are immediately interrupted by the horrors of capture. The writers are well aware that the audience knows what happened to the Jewish people in Europe during this time, and they use this knowledge to instill a sense of fear, worry, and dread right off the bat. These people have lived here forever, and yet, are treated as outsiders. The Patrol Officer’s constant questioning of Zsofia, a citizen of this country, reminds us once again: Is anything really ours if it can so quickly be taken away? Outside of the dark room, through a small window, we see a beautiful European landscape, reminding us that freedom is so close, yet so far.

SET UP / BREAK INTO ONE

After arriving at Ellis Island, along with dozens of other Jewish immigrants, Laszlo embarks to Philadelphia to meet up with his American cousin, Attila, who has offered him a job at his furniture company, along with a room to live in. Right at Laszlo’s arrival, Attila alerts him of some important news: his wife, Erzsebet, is still alive. Throughout the rest of Act 1, Laszlo and Erzsebet communicate through intimate letters, and their words act as a creative narration to the story.

This news has given Laszlo a new meaning in life, along with a goal for his time in America. Now motivated to succeed in this country, Laszlo works harder than ever for his cousin, using his architectural experience to design new furniture for his store. However, many people don’t seem to understand it, leaving him especially frustrated. On top of that, his cousin’s conversion to Catholicism at the wishes of his American wife, who doesn’t seem comfortable with Laszlo’s presence in their home, isolates him even further.

One morning, Laszlo and Attila get approached by a wealthy young man named Harry Lee Van Buren who wants them to build a study as a surprise for his millionaire father, Harrison. They agree and head out to their family estate; a massive mansion on a giant plot of land. Laszlo uses this simple opportunity to do something grand and with a passion.

Rather than a simple set of wall-in bookshelves, he designs a hyper-artistic modern study centered around the angle at which the Sun hits the room. 

Harrison returns home early and is furious at the surprise renovation. As a result, he kicks them off the property without paying them. When the two men return home, Attila blames Laszlo for the failed project and even accuses him of trying to sleep with his wife - a lie told by Attila’s wife to remove Laszlo from their lives.

Being the undeserving scapegoat for everything that went wrong (the immigrant’s curse), Laszlo falls into despair. Quickly developing a heroin addiction and being forced to shovel coal for a living, he is, to say the least, far from his American dream.

INCITING INCIDENT

One day while shoveling coal, Laszlo is visited by a surprise guest: Harrison Lee Van Buren. In the past couple of months, Harrison’s study had become the talk of the town, even leading to a story being written about it in a prestigious magazine. This prompted Harrison to conduct research on Laszlo and his past achievements, which in turn inspired a great idea: he should hire Laszlo to build a grand community center on his property as a tribute to his late mother. 

Laszlo, desperate to create something, accepts Harrison’s offer.

DEBATE

After Laszlo hesitantly considers designing the project, Harrison swiftly moves him onto his property to live and work full-time–practically without any consent from Laszlo. On top of that, Harrison doesn’t quite know what he wants this construction to be at all. The irony surrounding Van Buren is becoming evidently clear: he needs Laszlo’s intelligence to achieve success surrounding this project, yet he lacks the ability to surrender much of the creative control. Harrison’s infatuation with Laszlo’s mind is further emphasized throughout his constant claims that their conversations have been “intellectually stimulating”. He clearly wants to be an intellectual, but since he can’t achieve it on his own, his close proximity to Laszlo is the next best thing.

Laszlo must tread lightly. If he wants to see his vision made, he must do it in such a way that Harrison believes it to be his. And by doing this, he must succumb to Harrison’s bizarre requests. This means somehow incorporating a library, an auditorium, a gymnasium, and a Christian prayer room (despite the building being sold as a community center for all people) into a singular building. The vision is…ambitious to say the least. However, he agrees to everything without complaint due to the possibility of one of Harrison’s acquaintances being able to secure Zsofia and Erzsebet a safe escape to America. 

Like many immigrants before and after, Laszlo is no longer working to provide for himself, but for his family.

FUN AND GAMES

Harrison has once again made the project more difficult by introducing an outside contractor, Leslie Woodrow, to assist in the logistics. Being a frugal man without artistic integrity, he constantly undermines Laszlo’s ideas. When Laszlo finally presents Harrison with a model that pleases his every request, Leslie still questions the price of the materials and the aesthetics of the design. Luckily, Harrison defends Laszlo the entire way. This might be attributed to the fact that Laszlo included an unexpected detail in the model: a skylight in the center of the building that projects the Christian Sign of the Cross onto the floor. By doing this, Laszlo is sacrificing an integral part of his identity to succeed in America. Even though the entire design is his creation, it represents something far from him. Once again, the question remains: is anything really ours?

Nevertheless, the project is on its way. And to top it off, Erzsebet and Zsofia are finally coming to America. For the first time since coming to America, Laszlo has hope.

MIDPOINT / BREAK INTO TWO

Now, like many people who experienced this film in theaters, the first half blew me away. Masterful, to say the least. While the second half isn’t horrible, it loses all of the subtleties and grandeur that made the first half so spectacular. It’s obvious that the filmmakers were trying to build up excitement and hope in the first half only to tear it down in the second as a way to mirror the audience’s experience to Laszlo’s own life, but it is definitely flawed. I’ll explain as I finish out this analysis.

After the intermission, we find Laszlo waiting at the train station for Erzsebet and Sofia. But when they arrive, it is discovered that Erzebet is in a wheelchair, unable to walk due to osteoporosis. She didn’t want to tell Laszlo out of fear it would worry him too much. Laszlo doesn’t care and is just happy to see them. Finally, after all the pain, the family is reunited.

BAD TO WORSE

Tensions immediately rise with the clashing of the two families at the property. Erzsebet is off put by Harrison’s belittlement of her husband, as well as the entire Van Buren clan’s surprised reaction to her Oxford education. On top of that, Zsofia’s silent nature is treated with extreme discomfort. It’s evidently clear that the Americans aren’t sure how to handle this family of immigrants respectfully.

One day while Laszlo is working on the project, Erzsebet rides with Harrison to town. The conversation goes well and Harrison even offers to help her get a writing job in New York. But when Harrison casually mentions that he’s only working on the building because he ran out of room to store wine in his cellar (his real hobby), it becomes clear that he’s not as serious about this as Laszlo was led to believe. It is simply a petproject.

However, still intending to go through with it, they finally break ground on the land and begin construction. But this, of course, only brings more issues. Harrison brings on a second architect with conflicting ideas, his money-saving maneuvers consistently take away from its original design, and Harry, angry and intoxicated during an altercation with Laszlo about Zsofia, finally reveals what has been felt the whole time but never said aloud:

These constant clashes keep occurring until, finally, disaster strikes. A freight train carrying project materials crashes, destroying everything and injuring multiple Van Buren employees. This is the last straw for Harrison. In an instant, the project is canceled and everything Laszlo has worked for is gone.

Months go by, and although Laszlo has found new architectural work in New York City, he’s aged rapidly due to his growing heroin addiction. Finally, some good news hits: Harrison is ready to finish the building. Even with all the stress this project has brought him, for some reason he’s ecstatic.

At a dinner with a now-pregnant Zsofia and her new husband Binyamin, Laszlo and Erzebeth prepare to give her the good news. But their good news is overshadowed by even greater news: Zsofia and Binyamin are moving to Israel to start their family.

Obviously, Zsofia’s move to Israel fits in with the theme of questioning whether or not anything can truly be ours. She and her husband, both being Jews who had to flee to America for refuge, were met with hostility there too and are once again moving to a land where they are welcome. But my issue with this aspect of the script is the filmmakers do not make the message so clear. Is their move to Israel, a land historically met with border-drawn conflicts, supposed to align even more so with the theme that nothing is ours? Is it supposed to be critical of America’s treatment of Jewish immigrants and prop up the idea of Israel being a Jewish sanctuary? Or is it possible that they’re leaving it up to the audience to decide, and in doing so worthy of criticism for not truly making a statement either way? Many people I’ve talked to regarding this part of the film had different takes on what it was supposed to mean, but instead of appreciating the dialogue the film started, they were all just kind of frustrated with the vague nature of such a serious topic.

With the project back on, Laszlo and Harrison travel to Italy to purchase marble from Laszlo’s friend from the war, Orazio. After a hard day of work, the three of them spend the night drinking and dancing with some of Orazio’s friends. Feeling sick, Laszlo excuses himself from the dance floor and makes a beeline for the exit. Harrison curiously follows him outside where he finds Laszlo lying in an alley throwing up and barely conscious. Rather than help his friend in need, Harrison Van Buren shamelessly assaults Laszlo. 

As I mentioned earlier, Harrison is both jealous of and despises Laszlo for his mind. Here is this poor foreigner who has almost nothing, yet he has something that Harrison doesn’t. This gives Laszlo power over Harrison, which he isn’t used to. So he takes back his place on the hierarchy physically and with force.

While a dark and pivotal moment in the film, this is yet another instance of all subtly being thrown into the wind. When writing this script, the filmmakers asked themselves: “How can we depict the ways in which the American capitalist figuratively rapes the hardworking immigrant?” And their answer was to have him literally rape the hardworking immigrant. Nonetheless, the message is clear, and the story continues.

When Laszlo comes to the next morning, it is unclear whether or not he remembers what happened. He and Harrison finish their business in Italy and go back to America to complete the project. But Laszlo is a shell of his former self and it’s affecting everything around him–his relationship with Erzsebet, his patience during construction, and his ability to manage his heroin addiction. Finally, he snaps.

One night, when Erzsebet has a fit of extreme pain and begs Laszlo to grab her some pain medication, he discovers she is out of pills. Panicking, he decides to give her some of his heroin. As a result, she overdoses and must be rushed to the hospital. In that moment, all of his trauma is passed onto her. She survives, but reveals to Laszlo that during their high he had confessed something to her. Something so sinister that it causes her to lose all faith in the American dream, and she decides to go to Israel with Zsofia.

FINALE

After learning that Laszlo had been horribly assaulted by Harrison Lee Van Buren, Erzsebet travels to his estate to confront him. Somehow mustering up the strength to walk herself into the building, she interrupts their family dinner and says she has something tragic to declare:

Harry, in a fit of rage, drags the handicapped Erzsebet out of the building. When he returns, it’s discovered that Harrison is missing. Everyone on the property scans the area looking for him, and in doing so, finally reveals what Laszlo’s project looks like: dark halls to nowhere, mysterious staircases, and finally, a beautifully illuminated sign of the cross in the center of the building. Harrison is never revealed to have been found.

CLOSING IMAGE

After the events at the Van Buren Estate, the film cuts to the Epilogue, decades later. We find an elderly, frail Laszlo in Italy being pushed through an art gallery of some sort by Zsofia. As they continue down the halls, it’s revealed that the whole event is actually a celebration of Laszlo’s life’s work. She gets on stage to deliver a speech in his honor where she describes his early life and career, as well as his time in the Buchenwald Concentration Camp and immigration to America. As she does so, she elaborates on the inspiration for what many consider to be his masterpiece, the Van Buren Institute in Philadelphia:

THE END. As the credits roll, Zsofia’s final words echo in our minds, but what exactly does she mean? Perhaps she is highlighting the fact that the journey is something only enjoyed by those with an easy path. Perhaps she wants to make a point that for many, there are only a few destinations worthy of ending up at. Perhaps, once again, there is no clear answer and this is just another question the writers want to leave up to the audience to decide. 

CONCLUSION

As I mentioned before, a monumental first half followed by a disappointing second half that somehow managed to be both vague and unsubtle left me…unsure of how to feel about this film as a whole. And I’ve been experiencing this more and more lately with new movies that just didn’t know how to stick the landing: A Different Man, Heretic, and A Complete Unknown to name a few. But with The Brutalist, it seemed especially frustrating. At the intermission, I was on the edge of my seat. I thought this film was going to be the next great American epic. Instead, it was riddled with on-the-nose metaphors, unexciting dialogue, and political ideologies sprinkled in unnaturally without really saying anything at all. And while the final result was masterfully executed at every angle, I am here to dissect the script. And if we’re going off the paper, I must say that I am left unsatisfied, but not disappointed. As a writer myself, I know how difficult it can be to properly close out a good story. Hell, it’s difficult to even have a good story to work with in the first place. The first half of The Brutalist was nearly perfect, the characters were excellent, and the only reason I got so angry at the end was because it started off so spectacularly. So at the end of the day, I can’t be that mad. 3.5/5.