What is the American dream? Does it matter how we achieve it? How far can one go before they are unredeemable? These are all questions James Gray’s The Immigrant expects the audience to grapple with. Whether you find answers is not the film’s problem. The director James Gray is content to let the viewer come to their own decisions, which is both a weakness and strength for the film.
“The Immigrant” follows the American experience of the Polish immigrant Ewa, played by Marion Cotillard (“Rust and Bone,” “The Dark Knight Rises”). Ewa arrives at Ellis Island only to have her sister and traveling companion Magda quarantined for sickness. These circumstances lead her to shady stage impresario Bruno, played by Joaquin Phoeinx (“Her”). Bruno forces Ewa to come with him and perform on stage under the promise to help her sister escape quarantine.
Bruno and Ewa are polar opposites: Ewa is steely and cold, detached from the degradation surrounding her. Bruno is sloppy and intrusively close. The beginning of their relationship – Bruno providing room and board in exchange for her performance as, in a delicious piece of irony, Lady Liberty – is filled with mistrust that slowly morphs into pity and disgust on Ewa’s part and a deep obsessive love on Bruno’s. How each character attempts to reach out and connect with the other is the main object of the film.
Bruno eventually – though remorsefully - leads Ewa to prostituting herself for him, and though the film never explicitly shows her in bed with a john, the degradation and humiliation are keenly felt. Much of the movie is shot in close-ups, specifically of Cotillard. Her face-acting here is impeccable and recalls a sort of silent-film level of control and restraint. Each tear and recoil is a blow to the hearts of the audience.
Though Ewa is undoubtedly a victim in this movie – she really doesn’t have much of a choice in her actions if she wants to survive – Gray does give her a refreshing sense of agency, even if it is only an illusion. This illusion of agency and choice is, I think, a big part of this film’s statement on the American dream of success. Money is continually mentioned as an object of great desire; even the pure and righteous Ewa will do anything to get it. Her methods haunt her, however, and that is also a theme explored throughout the film :whether one can be redeemed after all the sins committed in the name of survival.
Ewa eventually returns to Ellis Island and there meets Bruno’s cousin Emil, the flashy and dashing stage magician, played by Jeremy Renner (“The Avengers”). Emil immediately falls into a deep fascination with Ewa and is determined to get her away from Bruno and the lifestyle he represents.
The second act of “The Immigrant” is mostly about the love triangle between these three– though the love is only on the part of the men towards Ewa, as she remains romantically detached from both. This continues until a tragic and somewhat corny act of violence tears the three apart. This act is the catalyst for the actions in the final act of the film.
The turn of the century New York created by Gray is meticulously composed and beautifully shot. No visual detail goes unnoticed by Gray’s eye, giving the film a burnished, atmospheric elegance that feels period appropriate. However, this does lend some sequences a glacial and inert tone that can bother some.
The movie’s main flaw, for me, was how it curiously miscast its male leads. Though both Renner and Phoenix are hugely talented neither has the presence and theatricality needed to anchor these roles. Both are stage performers – Phoenix a dancer and pimp and Renner a magician – without any real dramatic flair. Renner in particular just fails in this role.
Phoenix is significantly better but is also ill-suited for the film. This performance most closely mirrors his role as Commodus in 2000’s “Gladiator.” Both characters are sleazy and damaged, but while his scenes in “Gladiator” possess an unmistakable dreadful energy, here he just seems lifeless throughout most of the film.
Cotillard, however, does amazing work as Ewa. As the film progresses – and Ewa slips into prostitution – Cotillard changes from innocent to sultry while always retaining a sense of detachment and moral righteousness. She doesn’t make up for her male co-stars incompetence but does make their shared scenes much more tolerable.
The last shot of the film is a beautifully composed, bi-focal image displaying the beginning of two different journeys that will leave you with a sense of wonder and respect for the craft. It was probably the best part of the film for me. Otherwise, “The Immigrant” is a pretty film without much narrative momentum. It tells its story fairly well and then ends, no more and no less. I was neither impressed nor disappointed. I give it three-out-of-five stars.
