A portrait of spiritual and psychological struggle

Director John Gray channels Dostoevsky’s ghost in his film The Immigrant. While the plot is relatively simple, the film is a portrayal of spiritual and psychological struggle. 

It’s 1921, and two sisters arrive at Ellis Island from Poland. Ewa (Marion Cotillard) is distraught when her sister Magda is quarantined because her lungs are bad. Threatened with being deported, she is rescued by Bruno (Joachin Phoenix), who takes her to his apartment and introduces her to his “girls.”

'Low morals': Ewa suspects that he is not to be trusted, but she is desperate to get her sister out of quarantine and recognizes that Bruno is likely her only chance, especially when she sneaks off one night and walks to her aunt and uncle’s house, only to be turned away because she did something on the voyage over that showed she was of “low morals.” (We learn later that what she did was get raped.)

Bruno is a pimp, and Ewa becomes a prostitute in order to make enough money to gain her sister’s freedom. Bruno, meanwhile, is in love with her and doesn’t want to part from her.

Passion: The performances of Cotillard, one of our best actresses, and Phoenix, are outstanding. Cotillard shows Ewa’s ferocious will and dignity, while Phoenix portrays Bruno’s calm demeanor exploding at various times into anger and passion.

The cinematography uses a sepia wash to give the film the feel of a lost age, and the sets depict the crowded, grimy and gloomy streets of the Lower East Side of 1921. Several scenes reference older films, and the entire piece feels like an old Hollywood film.

The story plays with clichés, like that of the innocent prostitute, but Cotillard’s performance and the screenplay mostly avoid this, so that the characters feel real.

Religious themes: More than most films, it includes religious themes that are handled well, skirting, for example, the mean priest. (Ewa is harder on herself than he is on her.) And, like The Railway Man, which I reviewed her recently, The Immigrant is a powerful film about forgiveness.

Dostoevsky often portrayed men who do evil but are torn by love to do good. He also portrayed the innocent fool, who believes in the goodness of humanity in spite of great suffering. Gray is not of the caliber of the great Russian novelist (few if any are), but it’s nice to see a well-made film that explores these themes.