Marion Cotillard, who won the best actress Oscar for her portrayal of Edith Piaf in La Vie En Rose (2007), plays another waif-like figure in James Gray’s first period film, set in early Twenties New York when thousands of European poor tried to settle in a brave new world.
Young Ewa Cybulski (Cotillard) arrives from Poland with Magda, her sick sister, only to be faced with deportation for giving a false address of family in Manhattan. Bruno (Joaquin Phoenix), a slick conman who knows who to bribe, gets the decision reversed but Ewa’s sister is sent to Ellis Island with suspected TB.
Ewa links up with Bruno and works as a prostitute to send money to Magda. Orlando, a travelling magician (Jeremy Renner) who is Bruno’s cousin, falls for Ewa, and the film becomes a battle between the two men for her affection.
The film, one of the most expensive and expansive yet from Gray, succeeds in showing us the terrible uncertainties of the period — fleshed out by fine production values, and cinematography from Darius Khondji which clearly refers to the paintings and autochrome colour photographs of the time.
But it is first and foremost a highly personal tale of three people trying to survive in desperate circumstances — Ewa, a Polish Catholic girl, Bruno, a charmer with an amoral, evil side, and Orlando, a decent man making his way as an entertainer.
All three performances are fine, with Cotillard showing a will of steel behind her timidity and Phoenix giving his character just enough charm to suggest he is not a total conman. If the film lacks the drama and excitement of Once Upon A Time In America, it is a sincere and decently handled portrait of a time when so many believed the US to be an almost mythical land of plenty.
