Review of The Immigrant (2013) by Amboy — 04 Jun 2014

The director of the film wanted to recreate the world of the teeming lower east aside of New York during the great European immigration at the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. He has done this with extraordinarily evocative images.

But while the actors are all marvelous. the story lacks specificity and clarity. There's too much unexplained backstory==why is a simple Catholic girl emigrating from Poland? How does she come to speak good English? Why do you find out what happened to her on the ship so late in the film? What is the basis for the mutual hatred of the two men played by Phoenix and Renner.

Worth seeing, nevertheless, but oh, what it could have been with these actors and this cinematographer.