Rating of
3/4
Pretty decent Drama
Looneymanthegreat - wrote on 06/06/14
Another movie about the American dream? Why not.
The Immigrant is a well acted visually appealing movie that could have benefited from a second script draft. All in all the movie is good, but I can’t help noticing all the things they needed to change to make it great.
Ewa, the protagonist played wonderfully by the beautiful Cotillard, is actually kind of a boring character. She wants to be happy and she loves her sister, but through out all of the adversity she faces that’s all we really learn about her personality. We know a lot of terrible things have happened to her, but we don’t know much about what she is like.
The best character of the bunch is Bruno, who is played by Phoenix. His character starts by being a scoundrel who strips young immigrant women of their rights and convinces them to come work as prostitutes/showgirls for him self. But he slowly falls in love with Ewa as the movie moves forth, and in the end he ruins himself for Ewa's happiness. The character is clearly not totally sane, and even as he begins to do things for Ewa he still does so in an incredibly immoral manner. Throughout the whole movie he is the only character who goes through any change; and I think the whole movie would have been better if he had been the protagonist instead of Ewa.
Despite my qualms with the plot, the movie was over all fantastic. I really enjoyed the setting and the costuming all of which do a grand job of transporting us into the world of the movie. I also liked Jeremy Renner’s performance and the grade-cinematography. There’s a lot to enjoy here.
I doubt that there is anybody who would dislike this movie, but I also doubt that anybody will still remember it by August. If you’re a big Phoenix fan (like I am) or a big Cotillard fan then this is a must see, otherwise I’d say it’s up to you. This definitely isn’t the worst way you could spend ten bucks.
