Anyone else REALLY struggling with the back half of The Brutalist?

Caught the 70mm in Portland last night. Just incredible cinematography and performances. For the first half I genuinely felt I was seeing a modern classic in real time. Thoughtful characters, great dialogue, and again just music and direction that was a sight to behold.

But that back half man, just where did the nuance go? A movie so thoughtful and interested in small moments decides to build its final act around a metaphor as blunt as Homer Simpson’s Makeup Gun.

It’s like the movie was worried its character moments had been too subtle in getting the themes across, so it had to scream “get it!?” at you in the last hour. I felt all that bluntness only further gets doubled down on with the epilogue, in which any metaphor or symbolism in the design of Brody’s buildings is just out right explained to us, again just in case we hadn’t be able to understand the smaller character moments and have our own ideas instead of putting those ideas in our head.

Even with all those problems, I still really liked the movie! I really cannot properly put into words the quality of the craft behind this film. It deserves a lot of the awards it’s destined for this award season. I just can’t get over how totally blunt and jarring the final act was, and I’d love for some dialogue with other’s who have seen it who can maybe give me another perspective.

Edit: updating some of my language on the epilogue, a couple users raised some very compelling points and I realized I had confused a certain scene. Loving the perspectives I can get from this sub.