I love the Bauhaus art and architecture movement, so the fictionalized story of a Bauhaus-trained architect, László Tóth (Adrien Brody), was of great interest to me.

The Bauhaus movement is known for combining multi-functional spaces in architecture through clever design, as evidenced by the creative lighting László implements in his two big projects that are featured in the film.

Both of these projects are created for domineering businessman Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce). László finds himself concurrently enamored with and infuriated by the involvement Harrison has in elevating his career.

The first half of “The Brutalist” was great. I was talking with colleagues during the intermission and expressing my admiration for the film. (“The Brutalist” has a runtime of three hours and 35 minutes, including a 15-minute intermission.)

The opening shots of László arriving in the United States upon emigrating from Hungary are gorgeous, setting you up for a 1950s film that is even shot with the technology of that era, VistaVision (my screening was in a Dolby-enabled theater, which made it even more spectacular).

However, the film falls apart in the second half. Unfortunately, it is tied to the addition of the two major female characters, László’s wife, Erzsébet (Felicity Jones), and his niece, Zsófia (Raffey Cassidy).

This second half really deteriorated for me with scenes featuring three of the most awkward sexual encounters ever captured on film. These scenes really made “The Brutalist” live up to its name.

In between those scenes, there are sequences that glorify Zionism, and depending on how you feel about that movement, they might hit you in the wrong way.

Brody’s leading performance evokes his Academy Award-winning breakthrough performance in ‘”The Pianist” more than 20 years ago, but “The Brutalist” seemingly lacks a lot of the humanity that “The Pianist” had in spades.

Any thoughtful ideas about humanity and art mostly played themselves out in the first half of “The Brutalist,” with the second half puttering around and erasing a lot of the good faith the first half established.

Other reviews and articles about “The Brutalist” have drawn comparisons to classic films like “Citizen Kane,” “Giant,” “Double Indemnity” and “The Godfather.” For me, the more apt comparison is filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola’s 2024 film “Megalopolis.”

Both films are sprawling, ambitious epics that center on an architect whose artistic genius threatens to drive him mad. While the consensus seems to be that filmmaker Brady Corbet has been more successful with “The Brutalist,” I personally think they are both films that fail to match their epic ideas with quality storytelling.

“The Brutalist” has a slight edge with it truly seeming like a biopic (while being a completely new, fabricated story) and boasting strong performances from its cast that suffered only because of the failures in storytelling.

Rating: 3/5