The Immigrant: New York Film Festival 2013

Two Lovers’ James Gray adds another marvelous Manhattan melodrama to his oeuvre with this 1920s-era tale of a Polish immigrant, Ewa (Marion Cotillard), on a purgatorial stopover in the United States. After being forcibly separated from her sister at Ellis Island, Ewa falls in with hopelessly uncharismatic burlesque troupe manager Bruno (Joaquin Phoenix), who promises to reunite her with her sibling…for a price. Jeremy Renner provides fine support as a magician who, true to his illusory profession, gives Ewa some false hope. But this is Cotillard and Phoenix’s show, the former’s ready-for-my-close-up etherealness (utilized especially well in a stunning confession scene) rivetingly clashing with the latter’s simmering Method introspection. Their story builds, slowly and steadily, to a powerhouse climax that takes this fable about the treacherous undercurrents of the American Dream to masterful heights. Click for showtimes.—Keith Uhlich

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