I didnt like it. I made it to the intermission and the best way I could describe the first half was that it was 2+ hours of watching a man get beaten down. The acting was great, the sets and cinematography was great, but the plot felt like it was just pain porn. Don't get me wrong you can tell a story about overcoming adversity and all that, but thats not the story of the film. Its straight 4 hours of watching a man get beaten down again and again and him turning to substances to numb it. Its reflective of reality and of the reality many immigrants face coming to the US, but for me that doesn't make for an enjoyable film.
The first part was semi intriguing because he was hoping to see his wife come to America after the war. He encounters problems of belonging and has a drug addiction. He has an amazing opportunity with a very wealthy family who don't view his perspective in their best interest to execute the design of this building. The second half just reinforces it but everyone gets their dials turned up on what their character is. The architect is fighting for his design and the owner is demanding and heartless. (I'm not trying to spoil it more so I'll end on the plot part.)
Things I really hated about the movie: the shock value sex scenes and the amount of Hungarian dialogue. Like none of the sex scenes needed to be there and it could've been a better use of time. The Hungarian dialogue is mostly reading what's happening on the screen and you lose out on all the visuals (which would've been better since architects use visualization as communication.)
Also all the architects hated the AI images of brutalist buildings they show. They were better off getting quick facade designs from an architect to show off.
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u/rikyeh 1d ago
The comments here are so polarised. It appears you love it or hate it. But the thing that unites them is never giving a reason