4/10

How does a film starring Joaquin Phoenix, Marion Cotillard and Jeremy Renner receive the same rating as an Adam Sandler film? Come with me into the wonderful world of film reviewing as i explain to you where The Immigrant went wrong. It’s a story of two sisters from Poland who come to America in 1921 seeking the American dream. When they get here, Marion Cotillard is purchased by a man running a whorehouse (Joaquin Phoenix), and her sister is detained because she has lung disease. The Immigrant suffers from two very big problems that will put it towards the bottom of my rankings for the year. The first is that it has absolutely no imagination when thinking up anything that would make us remotely relate to these characters. Jeremy Renner who is usually Mr. Personality is plagued by soft spoken dialogue as a magician who is out to win the heart of Cotillard. We are given no time to explore one anothers feelings to the other person, so scene after scene with Renner is almost pointless. To add on to it, he is given a cruel ending that makes his talents feel even more wasted. The second problem that this film has is it suffers from the worst case of boredom since A Winter’s Tale. I can’t even imagine how this movie is given so many rave reviews for it’s performances and well crafted characters when the movie is dreary scene after dreary scene. This is a New York where the sun never shines, the characters are always depressed, and it all just gets old fast. If there is one positive, it’s the wardrobe work. The clothes and backgrounds make us feel like 1921 is brought back to life. The problem is that if this is what is represented for 1921, i will gladly stay in 2014. I understand that we are supposed to feel for this woman as she was forced into a career of slavery and prostitution, but it shows us none of her suffering along the way. It’s one quick edit after another if we ever get any scenes of her with the men who pay for her services. Over the course of the film, Cotillard comes up with a plan to save money to rescue her sister and have the two return to Poland. THe film creates a kind of love triangle while this is going on between the three lead characters. It’s not very well written and feel soap opera at times, but at least it’s something. The reactions of Phoenix as his best girl is being stolen by Renner was something i was looking forward to, and the payoff is over before it even begins. One thing i haven’t talked about are the performances. Cotillard is usually a good actor, but i don’t think her emotional range is deep enough to pull off that of a character who has had everything ripped from her. Jeremy Renner isn’t given enough screen time to make any kind of difference in a sloppy script. Phoenix is the only performance who i would recommend checking out. He plays a character on the borderline of insanity putting up with his business being yanked from him. It’s something that Phoenix always does well because that is the actor we know in real life. He gives the movie what little edge and excitment it has with his slipping from reality. The movie finishes with an ending which is very abrupt and doesn’t present us with anything we didn’t see coming. I know i have been very hard on this film, but i feel very surprised to see it was ranked with an 86% on Rotten Tomatoes. Looking further into it, that number comes from critics while the casual viewer has given it a 57%. When i saw the trailer, i was looking forward to seeing the way it played out. Watching the trailer again, i can say that it doesn’t do a good job of presenting the real film. The trailer is filled with beautiful tracks that compliment what appears to be a colorful film with a touching rags to riches story. The viewer will be left sadly disappointed when it’s all over. I think this is a movie everyone can skip. Flatlessly written and heartlessly acted is not a movie that we need for story that could’ve been inspiring