Review of The Immigrant (2013) by Harry W — 28 Sep 2014

With the excellent Joaquin Phoenix leading the film and Academy Award winner Marion Cotillard headlining the film, The Immigrant had enough powerful cast members to justify my viewing.

The film pounds viewers over the head with its message for the first part of The Immigrant. It has a slow start where protagonist Ewa Cybulska is continuously pushed from one place to another until she comes back to where she started. It seems a bit repetitive, and it just a constant reminder of the way that during its time period immigrants were treated as objects, more so than today. This got pretty tiring pretty fast, and it didn't give the film a good start. When a movie has a poor beginning, it affects the remainder of the viewing experience. And while eventually The Immigrant does manage to turn itself around, it really has a weak beginning. In the long term this has an impact on the entire film because the slow nature of the beginning proves to remain consistent throughout the story. Since The Immigrant doesn't exactly do a great job of setting up the story to be entertaining, it is difficult to find the remainder of the story to be engaging. But that's partially just because it is not really that interesting.

The issue in The Immigrant is that the central focus of the narrative is on Ewa Cybulska trying to seek out her sister and how her experiences in America damage her vision of what she hoped would be a dream. But this entire concept is very familiar becuase it has been overdone many times in decades where it was significantly more culturally relevant. It uneasily tries to blend legitimate social commentary with historical drama but gets distracted by a costume drama concept about a love triangle. Unfortunately, it just isn't that interesting. The slow pace of the film gets tied up with the love triangle depicted and the way that Ewa Cybulska is unfairly treated. While it isn't too difficult to sympathize with her naturally because she is established as the protagonist of the story and the way that she is treated unfairly, being actually interested in the story is something else and it was something I was not. I appreciate the intentions and the ambitions with The Immigrant, but the quality of its storytelling took a back seat to the quality of the actual story which left it as a middling and repetitive melodrama which plays too heavily on romance and costume drama to truly soar. Although admittedly, those are two genres I am not particularly fond of in the first place, and it is ridden with an atmosphere which deviates back and forth between tedious sentimentality and melodrama.

But I will say that The Immigrant did have some strong technical virtues to it. The visual style of the film does a lot for it. In terms of establishing the timeframe and the setting of the film the scenery and production design of the film does a lot to reinforce the nature of the costume drama theme nicely. And the cinematography of the film is good as well because the visual style of it all is nice. The aesthetic tone of the film seems rather old style which is nice and gives a more classical feel to the film, establishing a lot of strong imagery. There is a lot of nostalgia that comes into play from the visual style of the film and in part it does help to let the movie move along and ensure that the story feels a bit more natural. The musical score of the film also gives viewers a bit of a trip through time which ensures that The Immigrant works as a treat on the eyes and the ears as well. This does help to distract from the story in parts, although ultimately the slow pace of the feature is what ends up dragging it down.

And aside from the stylish direction that James Gray gives to the film, The Immigrant incurs the benefit of a talented cast.

Marion Cotillard's leading performance is one of the finest elements of The Immigrant. Even though the nature of the film and the dynamics her character experience are very melodramatic, her natural acting talent manages to ensure that she comes off compelling and likable in the part. As repetitive as the film is, Marion Cotillard is consistently effective in conveying the stressful state of mind that she has to put up with. There is a lot of sadness that she expresses in the role which never seems forced becuase she uses her Academy Award winning skills to honestly sink into the appropriate emotional state of mind and never leave it. She is excellently consistent in her part because her line delivery ties into her phsyical emotions very well which means that she captures the role in every sensible perspective. She makes herself an easily sympathetic lead and anchors the heart of the film nicely.

Joaquin Phoenix does a nice job as well. His self-obesssiveness and chemsitry with Marion Cotillard is what carries him in The Immigrant even if the premist between them is not exactly the most interesting. Joaquin Phoenix really embodies the role with a lot of tension and is very physically engaged with his character. He remains dedicated to the script in the film which carries the drama in it well, and so his leading performance comes off as one of the most interesting parts of The Immigrant.

Jeremy Renner does a nice job as well. He is very likable in The Immigrant because of the kind of support he brings to the story and his naturally likable demeanour. He seems to be one of the most interesting aspects of the story because his chemistry with Marion Cotillard makes for an interesting subplot and his charm in the part makes the film an easier viewing experience. Jeremy Renner's performance in The Immigrant is the finest because his character is the most interesting, so he makes a large contribution to The Immigrant.

So despite the fact that The Immigrant looks good and rides the talents of a strong cast, its story is slow, uninteresting, tedious and repetitive which makes it a rather dull affair.