The Immigrant

Film & TV

Thursday September 25, 2014 Comments

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I have been lucky enough to review some amazing films this year, including Wadjda (about a Saudi girl who longs to have a bike of her own), Healing (about imprisoned Aussies who care for birds of prey as part of their rehabilitation) and We Are the Best! (about three Swedish girls in a terrible punk band in the ’80s), so perhaps I’m getting a bit spoilt. I certainly expected The Immigrant to be much more interesting, moving and real than it actually was.

The premise of the film is intriguing: Ewa arrives in New York in 1921 with her sister Magda to start a new life far away from their Polish roots. Magda is detained on Ellis Island, because she has tuberculosis, and Ewa is forced into prostitution to pay for her sister’s medical costs.

Joaquin Phoenix (Her, The Master) plays Ewa’s nasty but charismatic pimp, Bruno, with great flair, while Marion Cotillard (Anchorman 2, Contagion) portrays Ewa’s determination and frustration well.

What the film seems to lack is narrative drive. The audience is never quite sure where the story is heading, and it ends up taking quite a few sharp twists and turns. I wanted to go along with Ewa, to feel her longing to follow Bruno’s magician cousin Emil (Jeremy Renner), but we hadn’t built up enough of a relationship with Emil to care deeply about him. The other girls surrounding Ewa are mainly seen as nasty or jealous.

I had hoped for a deeper penetration of a time and a place in history, as well as a human story imbued with these particular qualities, but perhaps my hopes were set too high. The Immigrant isn’t a bad film, but it isn’t a great one, either.

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<h1>The Immigrant</h1>

<address><a href="https://inreview.com.au/contributors/anna-solding/" class="author">Anna Solding</a></address>
											
							I have been lucky enough to review some amazing films this year, including <a href="http://indaily.com.au/arts-and-culture/2014/03/27/wadjda-ground-breaking-cinema/">Wadjda</a> (about a Saudi girl who longs to have a bike of her own), <a href="http://indaily.com.au/arts-and-culture/2014/05/08/healing-blockbuster/">Healing</a> (about imprisoned Aussies who care for birds of prey as part of their rehabilitation) and <a href="http://indaily.com.au/arts-and-culture/2014/09/18/best/">We Are the Best!</a> (about three Swedish girls in a terrible punk band in the ’80s), so perhaps I’m getting a bit spoilt. I certainly expected The Immigrant to be much more interesting, moving and real than it actually was.
The premise of the film is intriguing: Ewa arrives in New York in 1921 with her sister Magda to start a new life far away from their Polish roots. Magda is detained on Ellis Island, because she has tuberculosis, and Ewa is forced into prostitution to pay for her sister’s medical costs.
Joaquin Phoenix (Her, The Master) plays Ewa’s nasty but charismatic pimp, Bruno, with great flair, while Marion Cotillard (Anchorman 2, Contagion) portrays Ewa’s determination and frustration well.
What the film seems to lack is narrative drive. The audience is never quite sure where the story is heading, and it ends up taking quite a few sharp twists and turns. I wanted to go along with Ewa, to feel her longing to follow Bruno’s magician cousin Emil (Jeremy Renner), but we hadn’t built up enough of a relationship with Emil to care deeply about him. The other girls surrounding Ewa are mainly seen as nasty or jealous.
I had hoped for a deeper penetration of a time and a place in history, as well as a human story imbued with these particular qualities, but perhaps my hopes were set too high. The Immigrant isn’t a bad film, but it isn’t a great one, either.
 
 
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