Review of The Immigrant (2013) by Ola G — 31 Jul 2015

In 1921, Polish Catholic sisters Ewa (Marion Cotillard) and Magda (Angela Sarafyan) arrive at Ellis Island, New York City as immigrants looking for a better life after escaping their ravaged home in post-Great War Poland. Magda is quarantined because of her lung disease. Ewa is almost deported, but Bruno (Joaquin Phoenix) notices her and her fluency in English, bribes an officer to let her go, and takes her to his house. Knowing Ewa has to make money to get Magda released, Bruno lets her dance at the Bandits' Roost theater and prostitutes her. Bruno also becomes interested in her romantically. Ewa looks for her expatriate relatives living in New York, but her uncle by marriage turns her in to the authorities; he says he had heard she had gotten in trouble for engaging in illicit behavior on the ship from Europe, and he wishes to distance himself from sheltering a prostitute. Policemen take her back to Ellis Island, and once again she is slated for deportation. While at Ellis Island Ewa watches a performance by Emil (Jeremy Renner) (Bruno's cousin, making a living as a performing illusionist called Orlando the Magician); after his performance he hands her a white rose. Eventually he sweeps Ewa off her feet and quickly becomes her only chance to escape the nightmare in which she finds herself...

James Gray´s direction is always confident and his films has rich environments and characters to indulge in. Yet again we get a powerful performance from Marion Cotillard in this period drama on the "American dream" and Phoenix is up there with her. But, by now we have seen that angelic sad look on Cotillard a bit too many times lately and it´s getting tiring. She has ended up being typecast in this sort of victim roles and she needs to break free from that and do something completely different. Brian Clark of Twitch Film gave the film a mixed review, commenting that "while the film boasts great performances, the narrative and overall drama lacks the ferocity, momentum and intensity of Grey's other work". Which hits the nail on the head. The depth I was hoping for does get lost in the performances and despite the fact that we have a truly tragic story in focus, it sort of passes on the outer lane and in never really grips you the way I was hoping for. "The Immigrant" is not amongst James Gray´s best work and I hope the next one will be better.