Review // The Immigrant

There is something magical about New York in the early 1900s. That magic is vividly captured by director James Gray in his newest film, The Immigrant. This beautiful portrait of a city is matched by the beautiful portrait of a woman, Marion Cotillard, who gives a powerhouse performance in the lead role. Though the coming-to-America storyline feels drawn out at times, it’s held together by strong performances and wonderful production design.

Cotillard’s Ewa is the titular immigrant who arrives on Ellis Island from Poland with her sickly sister Magda. Magda is quickly snatched from the line due to illness (surprise), and Ewa finds herself alone. When the customs agent reads of an “incident” on board the ship suggestive of the fact that Ewa is a woman of “low morals”, he sends her to the deportation line. It’s all looking grim until Joaquin Phoenix’s Bruno appears. Clearly leveraging some connections on the island, he picks Ewa out of the deportation line and brings her home to his apartment. The kindly act of a charitable man? Not quite.

Bruno is a theatre agent and pimp who runs a nightly “show” in which he parades his group of girls before a drunken crowd. The city authorities turn a blind eye to the prostitution and liquor thanks to receiving a healthy cut, but Bruno has a new plan when it comes to his Polish beauty. He tries to convince Ewa to work for him, splitting the take 50/50 and keeping the cops out of the loop. But our immigrant is a moral, god-fearing woman and it is not until she learns of the incredible funds it will take to get Magda out of the Ellis infirmary that she agrees to go along with the scheme.

Joaquin Phoenix is in his element as Bruno, a mix between slimy manipulator and petulant child. Switching unpredictably from imposing to impudent, he commands loyalty and even affection from the girls, who eye Ewa as a disrupting outside presence. As he’s shown in films like The Master and Gladiator, Phoenix is perhaps the best actor in Hollywood when it comes to playing characters that you love to hate, and Bruno is another example. His infatuation with Ewa is boyish and juvenile – especially for the supposed wicked villain of the film – and yet there is a real sense of unpredictability and danger whenever he is on the screen.

Though quieter and less showy, Cotillard matches Phoenix in intensity. The circumstances of her emigration from Poland aren’t revealed until later in the film, yet they haunt her expression from the opening shot. Beautifully framed by the camera of Darius Khondji she seems as if she was plucked from the silent screen. Like those stars of early cinema Cotillard rarely speaks, and almost radiates light when on screen. In one of the film’s most beautiful and heart-wrenching scenes we watch Ewa corrupted by Bruno’s employment, transforming from timid reluctance to smoky-eyed acceptance all in one painting-like scene on a daybed. It’s almost too much to bear, yet Gray is careful to avoid any graphic or disturbing imagery, understanding that the reality is enough.

Just as the film begins to feel oppressively dark and hopeless, Jeremy Renner’s Emil appears on the scene. Bringing some welcome charisma and comic relief, the magnetic Emil (known onstage as Orlando the magician) soon takes a fancy to the Polish beauty. Seeing the devil-may-care magician as her one chance of escape, Ewa is drawn to him. However the magician and Bruno have a past, and as he watches another of his girls seduced by the charming Emil, Bruno steps in to stop it.

The Immigrant is beautiful melodrama. Gray and co-writer Ric Menello never make things easy for their characters, nor do they provide much relief for the viewer from their dreary circumstances. But while such melodrama would be tiresome set in another time period it feels appropriate here. Helped along by the fantastic production design and a superb acting double-punch of Cotillard and Phoenix, The Immigrant succeeds…despite being just about the most depressing thing you’ve seen all year.

Reviewed by Evan Arppe.

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