Best Actor 2024: Adrien Brody in The Brutalist

Adrien Brody received his second Oscar nomination for portraying László Tóth in The Brutalist.

The Brutalist follows a Hungarian architect as attempts to make it in America after having survived the Holocaust. 

After Adrien Brody’s surprise though worthy Oscar win at the young age of 29 for The Pianist, his career never quite seemed to match that break out, though to be fair to Brody there were good films and performances within the period regardless and even before this film he certainly found some prominence again via Wes Andersons’s House For Actors Who Are Talented But Maybe Didn’t Make The Best Career Choices alongside fellow 2024 nominee Edward Norton. But regardless this film feels special within the trajectory of Brody’s career particularly as one could argue that this film in some way picks up where The Pianist leaves off, though I will say while the characters share some traits in common László Tóth is not just a continuation of Władysław Szpilman in terms of Brody’s own performance. Brody simply is Tóth in a way few performances are, and it is one of those surprises that he wasn’t intended for the role originally since he simply is this person from the first bits of acting within the film. As we open his story as he is shuffling off the dark innards of a boat as he enters Ellis Island. Brody’s delivery of just his first lines establishes already an aspect of the accent that is an example of a truly great accent where it should be mentioned because not only is it natural, it grants an immediate sense of period, time and place the moment we hear his voice. It doesn’t feel like a point to show off, it just feels like the character, and the accent never overwhelms the performance; it is just a natural part of the character. And it is felt from his first words as making sure he is stolen from, we hear the man from Eastern Europe but more so the hesitating fear in his voice as he tries to secure himself. The voice of a man who has been through much, and it is no way out of hell even after he escapes the seeming hell of the bowels of this ship. 

Escaping the hell though is part of what I adore about this performance and this film, as we find Tóth leaving the ship with his friend he clearly found on his way crossing the Atlantic. We have the moment where they both see the Statue of Liberty, though skewed which is one of my favorite shots of last year, where Brody’s jubilation isn’t some surface emotion, there is such a deep cry of joy as in his eyes this is clearly a man who has been in a desperate state just a the past few days, but even more so beyond that. His reaction is of a man who believes he is seeing the promise of the American dream in this brief celebration of the men, as we see someone seeing some potential of escaping his horrific past. Unfortunately his friend only takes László to a brothel off the ship, where Brody continues to convey the history of the man as László fails to perform, and Brody brings such a remarkable awkwardness throughout the interaction. There is an attempt at a kind of tenderness that reflects a man who hasn’t been touched in any tender way even via payed overt sexuality, but still the sense of a pressured shame of his inability to perform but I’d say even more so the weighing since of his wife who he believes to be deceased at this point. Brody brings out within the “failure” of László  in the moment to hold such a clear attachment to still being stuck in that old existence. Before leaving New York to see his cousin on the outskirts of Pennsylvania, even Brody’s performance of the goodbye from his friend within the ship, is such tremendous work in terms of how much weight we bring as Brody suggests the potency of connection for László fitting a man who likely had few friends, or least not many alive friends, in the last few years of his existence. It is only the scenes before even the title card, and Brody is letting into a great novel’s details in this man’s life mostly just through his performance at this point. 

László arrives at his destination greeted by his Americanized cousin Attila (Alessandro Nivola) where Brody brings so much weight to the moment in bringing an immediate sense of the history between the two but more so Brody’s expression denotes the discovery a familiar smiling face after years of not seeing any. His performance as much as it shows the joy initially is filled with that pain before this moment. When Attila tells László that Erzsébet (Felicity Jones) is alive, Brody’s work is simply extraordinary in the soulfulness and the gamut of emotions he so naturally purges out in this single breakdown in the moment. As you see the immediate surprise, segueing into excitement then sudden sorrow and even shame as he begins to collapse, showing in these changes completely naturally portrayed by Brody as an unleashing of this emotion which also speaks to the history. The surprise of a man who truly thought his wife was dead, that sense of the separation of time from the last time he saw her, the joy of the old relationship and love within that excitement, the sorrow of the idea of the loss, but also that shame that perhaps alludes to his time at the brothel revealing almost the man punishing himself for having given into the despair that she was dead. We finally perhaps have some hope for the future as Attilia shows László around his furniture showroom along with Attila’s very American wife Audrey (Emma Laird). Brody’s great in setting up this initial state of László in this new land though as there is humble core to the demeanor as he moves around in this perpetual state of gratitude, as Attillia gives him a place to work and even a place to stay, albeit a bathroom less showroom closet essentially. Brody’s sincerity though takes this in even as an opportunity for anything and the quietude of the man is someone who will not speak out at this moment just accepting what it is that he can be given at this time. 

We see initially a progression within Brody’s performance in portraying László trying to find his strength as a man again. We have the moment where he assures another immigrant Gordon (Isaach de Bankolé) and his son that he will make sure to find them food after a charity runs out of supplies. Brody’s quiet warmth in the moment is notable as just there’s a little bit of a confidence within it, not much yet but enough as we see the man establish the friendship with Gordon, though there will be negative aspects of that friendship soon enough. Within the world we see László develop his own minimalistic chair for his cousin, and in that process there’s a quiet precision within Brody’s performance where we see man developing purpose again. He’s no longer the fearful man in a new country but slowly finding something for himself again. Brody still keeps a certain protection within his work, partially opening up but not fully. And frequently there’s so much that Brody does internally in a given scene such as when he, Attila and Audrey are celebrating and Attila tries to get László to dance with Audrey. Brody’s expression brings so much reservation with the internalized knowledge that this could lead to bigger problems, before the urging finally convinces him to do so, and Brody is great in the slight hesitation however moment of familial joy that takes over as they dance. Something that is nearly crushed as she makes dismissive remarks to a drunken László afterwards where Brody’s reaction has a remarkable sense of defeat and pathos. Lost in the moment of knowing what really to say, and Brody’s eyes rather reflect a man not wanting to give himself to more pain by getting into this conflict with her. 

Eventually Attila receives a commission from the wealthy Harry Lee Van Buren (Joe Alwyn) who wants Attila to refurbish Harry’s father Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce)’s library, which Attila wants László to oversee. And here is where Brody absolutely excels in making us see glimpses of perhaps László before he suffered through the holocaust, right from when they are setting up estimates for the job and Brody looks around where you see the man actively trying to realize something special in his mind. When Attila is more compromising in his way about Harry, Brody’s terrific delivery of the doubled estimate is spoken with such confidence of a man who believes he can make a masterpiece out of the library. Within the sequence of the building of the library to László’s minimalistic specifications, Brody is the man now in control of the situation, where the way even how he sweeps dust with the attention to detail, and his specifications for the very exact way he wants the room constructed is with the charisma of a true genius. When something even goes wrong with the job where the removal of the glass roof that breaks, Brody’s quiet indignation over the mistake is with the man who is truly the mastermind behind the project who knows how it should all be done, and within this we see the once master architect nearly back to life. Even with Harrison unexpectedly returning home furious at the mess created by the job, there is a power in the calm that Brody brings in his replies to the anger, just by urging the man to see what the job is meant to be and then his delivery of just leaving and accepting of the man’s dismissiveness, actually isn’t a moment of weakness, rather we see still confidence in Brody of a man who knows that his work was great so doesn't need to argue for it at this point. This contrasts heavily however when Attilla soon afterwards states that the Van Buren’s are refusing any payment and worse than that is kicking him out for a false claim by Audrey that László made a pass at her. László is the opposite here in just accepting the charge and his fate of exile from his cousin’s home. Why this makes sense is Brody’s performance where in his reaction we see the far greater weight to the accusation from a family member, than just an angry customer, showing instead a heartbreaking sense of defeat in his reaction with the sense of any dream he had for America crumbling in his eyes as Atilla tosses him away like trash. 

We cut ahead in time as we find László with Gordon living in Catholic charities and eking by doing construction work, while the two of them take heroin on their off time, László doing it more so than Gordon. Brody’s portrayal of the heroin addict, which he got his first unfortunate taste of on the ship before the film began when he severely injured his nose, is a man easing away within a depression. Brody doesn’t portray it as the action that finds jubilation, rather as something that makes him able to exist in his sorrow at first, and becomes just the point of habit afterwhile. Brody’s manner in these scenes are of a man going through the motions in almost a zombified state. Brody brings just the barest energy of the man existing far more than living as we see him shoot up, work construction and dig ditches, until by chance Harrison returns looking for László. Harrison from the reaction to László’s library now has become fascinated with the work with the man and learned of his background as a renowned architect in Hungary before the war. I love the entirety of what Brody does in the scene with Pearce as the two talk about László’s past accomplishments. Initially Brody’s spark of life is still limited even as Harrison begins to complement him, I especially adore Brody’s repeated delivery of “doing construction on a Bowling Alley” that he delivers with this specific resignation as an odd acceptance of a seemingly pointless existence he now in given his talents. However when Harrison shows László’s old work we finally break that spell and Brody is again wonderful in showing the history of his connection, his old passions and his old heartbreak as he so tenderly mentions that he thought all of the work had been lost. Brody reveals the old wound and finds life again through this seeming appreciation for that lost work once again. 

Brody once more builds up László a bit to at least to some life again when Harrison invites him over to a dinner at his estate, where Harrison lavishes László with praise for his work in front of all of his guests. Where László’s plight becomes the point of focus and Brody’s amazing throughout the scene as you see such careful anxiety within the scene with just a bit of suspicion to the whole affair but an attempt at appreciation. His exasperation when noting with such sadness that it seems unlikely to himself that he will be able to find a way to get his wife and his niece over the America, we see the old despair for a moment, until Harrison’s Jewish attorney shows both the recognition for their mutual faith and informs László of a law that will help László reunite with his family. Brody’s manner changes instantly to bring sudden hope in his eyes again and seemingly just genuine appreciation to what seems possible in his life, with the most sincere delivery of his pat on the arm as a thank you to Harrison for seemingly setting all this up for him. Followed by a pivotal scene where Harrison tells his tale of dismissing his own grandparents who begged him for money before wanting to learn more about László’s method behind his minimalism. Brody is fantastic in naturally rearranging László again into what was likely his former self, more so than ever as he suggests a man believing that Harrison is speaking to him as an equal and brings those walls down to allow himself to be his old self for just a moment. And I’ll say Brody touches even just a bit of the pompousness of a genius as he describes his method as something that lasts against all other things, and while there is absolute passion in every one of the words the way Brody positions it as a doctrine. Brody now in this moment becomes the intellectual architect professor, no longer the fearful immigrant or survivor. 

Something that ends up working out as Harrison not only brought László to praise him but to also show him the setting for a community center that he wants László to build in memorial for Harrison’s late mother. Brody’s gradual progression through the scenes up to the intermission are masterful in Brody’s progression in confidence. Finding initially the right cautiousness in his requests to Harrison’s dream. Creating texture within every conversation that grants us a sense of the complication now as Brody shows László in working mode. When he first hears the idea from Harrison who mentions “losing a dream”, there’s such sincerity at first to sharing that idea and the nuance in the quiet reaction is perfection from Brody. But as is the conservations following where the job seems quite enormous in nature and Brody brings a convincing degree of mentally taking it in as a man trying to place all of the ideas Harrison is throwing at him in a single usable way. When he is forced to work with a practically minded builder Leslie Woodrow (Jonthan Hyde), Brody brings a down to earth quality as though László has been in these rooms before, albeit a long time ago, with his exciting push for his ideas over those of compromise and there is such a way that Brody accentuates the moments of specific ideas where there is just this specified intensity of a man where his passion is exact. Brody is amazing in the town hall scene where he presents his ideas to the committee, and you see László at his apex. Brody isn’t braggadocious, rather he brings that specific power to László in this scene. He brings such nuance when talking about the perception of his background where you see in his eyes going through an internalized minor exasperation beyond the prejudice, but has a force to go beyond as he presents the key to his building as a beacon literally for the community, where Brody has this easy command of someone presenting his genius where he knows his ideas are a kind of truth. A truth that in this moment he is able to convey to all others with such conviction. 

After intermission we come back some years later where we get some extreme contrasts which again Brody is an essential facet in terms of making the contrasts illuminations of the situation rather than unnatural disparate ones. The opening is when he is finally reunited with Erzsébet which is heartbreaking work from Brody again because there is only the sincerest hopeful joy until he actually sees she is in a wheelchair stricken with osteoporosis due to famine, where Brody’s expression shifts to concern than sorrow so naturally once again in conveying the years of painful separation. Still even then the way he embraces her is filled with love regardless. This is heavily contrasted though in their first night together where Brody and Jones go from the outward loving chemistry to the extreme intimacy of the two as a long married couple. They are exceptional together because even the way they bicker quickly about other matters, each's delivery to others has the old shorthand of that married couple that is fascinating as you instantly are granted the sense of history beyond the separation. Something that goes further as Erzsébet seeks László’s physical affection. An element that is performed with a particularly potent realism in the way there is something different, even more specific in that sexual intimacy yet wholly the same people however revealing that much more detail of their connection. Something though that comes out part in the lust and love we see naturally intertwined however complicated as their mutual traumas reveal themselves as authentically as the lust, as Brody brings such a sense shame and sorrow of the years apart, his failures but also pivotally the still very real love he had almost forced down within his pain. 

Contrasting that is his ongoing relationship with the project where essentially László becomes a director much of the time trying to get final cut with his project, meanwhile his “producer” in Harrison is becoming more demeaning at times and starting to purposefully undercut him. Brody’s excellent in playing the note of no longer any notion of equals when speaking with Harrison and instead his face bears years of minor abuses as he interacts with him and just keeps it down into his throat best he can. Any notion that László is his equal is obviously lost. In the project itself Brody weaponizes the frustrations of the artist into every moment of dealing with the penny pinchers that Harrison purposefully brought on, and secretly and not so secretly supported by Harrison to keep going against László’s wishes. Brody excels in taking it all in with this combination of still granting the vicious sense of purpose, of the dream, of the ambition of the wish in his eyes, but now sharpened actually by his constantly needing to fight for every aspect of his specific designs. We see the moments of holding in from the year before, no longer can be done and he comes lashing out at the people he is able to, and within that Brody offers such real conviction for that vision. Making so when a disaster hits causing Harrison to shutter the project, Brody is marvelous in the combination between defeated heartbreak as he tries to brokenly argue to keep going, only to be shouted down by Harrison, then unleashing his wrath against his own work with the anger of a man who is almost screaming at the very idea of a dream by seeing it go up in smoke, which too results in him being reprimanded but this time by his wife. And I love all these moments of Brody and Jones, as much as they’ve been through they are truly an old married couple in the way Jones cuts through while Brody quietly resigns, though doesn’t wholly give in to her wisdom each time. 

Unfortunately Harrison decides to continue the project which leads László to go with him to pick up a piece of marble to help complete the project, which during this time during a heroin induced stupor László is raped by Harrison. After this point what Brody portrays is László fundamentally twisted with  all the frustrations and disappointments of his life coming to the surface without exception which he held back before. Brody’s ferocity in the anger of these scenes is no longer a man with passion for his project fighting for it, it is now a temper without a fuse, as Brody makes every lash out such an instinctual response of someone rotting to the core of his mind. Brody expresses the fundamental horror of living with what happened to him, but as a catalyst to unleashing his anger over it all from his first days of disappointment with his cousin in America. Brody is outstanding in his long argument with Erzsébet in the car over his anger. Brody is devastating in bringing forth not just of the moment, but of the years of his frustrations all at once. His repeated, defeated, and so pained delivery of “they don’t want us here” rings so powerfully as it isn’t just a personal sense but the very idea of being this unwelcomed outsider left to fend for himself among wolves like Harrison. Unfortunately Erzsébet is similarly pained though physical anguish leading both of them, by László’s sudden choice, to give them both heroin, which they briefly escape together both through drugs and sex, until László discovers Erzsébet nearly dying from an overdose. In a moment of true horror that Brody brings such incredible heart wrenching intensity in his pleas to the hospital to save his wife and the moment where you seem to fully see just what losing her is to him. Leaving the two survivors of so much finally reconnecting, in a scene that seems simple enough yet is pivotal to both performances, and both characters. As finally the embrace doesn’t have a moment's complication, we saw love between them before, but in this moment they are as one in their loving connection each seeing the value of each, with László hardly at peace, but Brody showing someone truly in a state of comfort through this uncompromised love. Brody delivers a masterful turn, he carries the more than three hours of this film, he captures every burden of the character and to me does where it is powerful, convincing and pivotally never feels forced. As much as László goes through, as much pain as he suffers, Brody makes it all real, because that is not all there is to his performance, he finds the nuance within the ambition of the man, the genius of him, the joys he does have, the love he finds and as much as László could’ve been just a suffering symbol, Brody makes him and his journey wholly real.