The Immigrant

Marion Cotillard in Grim Melodrama

680x478-2Written and directed by James Gray [Little Odessa (1994), We Own the Night (2007)], The Immigrant (2013) finds Ewa (Marion Cotillard), arriving on Ellis Island in 1921, destitute and alone. Her sister is under quarantine  and Ewa also faces deportation. Relatives didn’t show up to claim her. A well-dressed man named Bruno Weiss (Joaquin Phoenix) who knows the authorities, intercedes on her behalf. Released into his custody, he takes her to his residence in the rough Jewish district. Weiss comments that he can handle himself in the neighborhood because he speaks Yiddish. Established immigrants exploiting recent immigrants is familiar from other movies. With Phoenix playing him, we’re not expecting a saint.628x471-1

Academy Award winner Cotillard is one of today’s great international stars. Unfortunately, here she’s trapped in a lifeless part. As someone once said, she shows every emotion, from A to B. The blame lies less with her than with writer/director Gray. Inherently a downbeat subject, many scenes have a gray washed out tint, adding to the depressing quality. Things pick up with the arrival of Orlando the Magician (Jeremy Renner).

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iUnlike sourpuss Bruno, Orlando lives to make people laugh and even coaxed a smile out of Eva. Orlando’s real name is Emil Weiss. Like his cousin, Orlando is secular Jewish (In his Tablet review, J. Hoberman describes them as “mercenary half-Americanized Jews.”) They’re also both in love with the Polish Catholic Ewa. The French actress Cotillard had a lot of preparation to do for the role [Meryl Streep was credible as the Polish holocaust survivor in Sophie’s Choice (1982)]. Cotillard spoke to Indiewire about learning Polish in a matter of weeks. There’s also the smart casting choice of having Polish born actresses support her, including Dagmara Dominczyk [Higher Ground (2011)] as Belva.