Adrien Brody’s portrayal of the fictional Hungarian-Jewish Buchenwald survivor Laszlo Toth is brilliant in its anguish (although, I have to say this man had more ‘bad’ *** than any poor man I have ever known). This epic period piece, filmed in Vista-vision, is fascinating to watch although I thought Guy Pearce’s portrayal of the wealthy industrialist who used and abused Toth was unworthy of the movie and rather one-dimensional. Toth’s heroin-soaked deep dive into the Post WWII jazz scene reminded me of what a music teacher once told me: Jazz music is about the notes between the notes. The same could be said of this movie. At three and a half hours long, the movie is more than a linear story about an immigrant’s journey to America. The story is about despair, redemption, addiction and determination. It’s a big film and one that needs to be re-watched but not any time soon because frankly it was emotionally exhausting. Brody’s performance is amazing.
