A film about a Jewish architect escaping his home Budapest during World War 2 and making a new life for himself in the USA doesn’t exactly sound a crowd pleaser, especially when you consider that it’s also 3 hours and 20 minutes long, featuring an old school intermission in cinemas.

And yet when it came to the Oscars, it was awarded an impressive ten nominations across the board, which certainly put Brady Corbet’s film in the spotlight.

With the film now available to watch at home, including intermission, is it more a case of enduring rather enjoying?

Arriving at the port of New York City is Jewish immigrant László Tóth (Adrien Brody). He has managed to flee his home of Hungary, as Europe comes under fire during World War 2.

He makes his way to Philadelphia, where he meets his cousin Attila (Alessandro Nivola), who has started his own furniture business, and wants László to help him, as he has an eye for design, being a renowned architect back in Europe.

They are soon hired by Harry Lee Van Buren (Joe Alwyn), who wants to surprise his father, rich industrialist Harrison (Guy Pearce), with his library getting a complete make-over while he is away.

The pair get to work, hiring a crew, creating a striking library. Unfortunately Harrison returns early, and isn’t best pleased with his son’s ‘surprise’, and kicks László out.

It looks like László is in a bad place, but his interaction with Harrison turns out to be quite beneficial, when it emerges there’s a significant job available that will have an impact on all their lives.

There’s a lot to admire about US director Corbet’s third effort at directing – certainly a lot more than his previous film, 2018’s Vox Lux.

Shot unusually in VistaVision, a wide screen format that was popular in the fifties and sixties, Corbet’s screen ratio is suitably block-shaped, giving it a visual weight throughout.

It’s also quite deceptive, much like some of the most unique architecture, by having a substantial screen size, yet filling it mostly with close-ups. For instance, the opening shot sees László arrive in NYC, but instead of recreating the city in the forties, Corbet smartly uses a short cut – a close-up of the Statue of Liberty, with a few establishing shots of the city, and that’s all he needs. It’s cleverly conservative, but does the job. And he continues this style for the rest of the film. It’s visually economic – no doubt mostly down to the film’s budget of less than $10 million, which is extraordinary, especially considering the film’s lengthy run time.

But the film has a major flaw – it is created with nothing but straight, harsh edges on an emotive level, with very few soft curves.

Whether it’s deliberate or not, the performances are very much in keeping with concrete, László’s preferred building material, in they’re not terribly exciting. There’s no passion, no fervour, and more worryingly, lacking real drama.

Corbet, who co-wrote the script, tried to address this, by making László become addicted to heroin after being administered it for an accident to his nose, but it still struggles to evoke a greater level of emotion.

Even what should have been a disturbing scene with László in Italy, is shot in such a way that you’re still not entirely sure of what actually transpired.

All in all it’s probably why the film only ended up winning three out of the ten Oscars it was up for, with Brody picking up Best Actor, and a statue for cinematography and original score, all of which were pretty generous. It’s certainly no surprise it didn’t pick up best original screenplay.

Although it manages to impress in places, Corbet’s film is a prime example of style over substance, with a rambling narrative, lacking depth and flair, which certainly makes it an experience that’s not worth repeating.

It has delusions of grandeur, but when you examine it closely, it’s nothing more than a no frills, solid effort that just doesn’t have what it takes to stimulate the senses.