A three-and-one-half hour movie about a troubled architect commissioned to build a community edifice in Bucks County.

Four hours if you include the 15-minute intermission.

Sounds like a fun time at the movies.

Well, yes.

“The Brutalist,” nominated for 10 Oscars, is a front-runner at the 67th Academy Awards to be presented March 2.

The sprawling epic spans decades from a 1940s’ Nazi concentration camp in Germany to 1960s’ bucolic Bucks County countryside.

“The Brutalist” was seen on a weekday at AMC Center Valley 16. When I went to purchase popcorn during intermission, the concession stand was closed.

“The Brutalist” presents a skewed impression of Bucks County. More about that later.

The movie’s title, “The Brutalist,” refers to a style of architecture known as brutalism whereby buildings are massive and typically constructed of concrete. The name is from the French term, “béton brut,” which translates as “raw concrete.” The aesthetic was to “honor concrete.”’ In some instances, impressions of wood placed against still-wet concrete provided a type of bas-relief or surface impression of the wood grain.

The original buildings of Northampton Community College, which opened in 1967 in Bethlehem Township, were an example of brutalism before more sedate brick was added to the facades.

Newhouse 1, an award-winning building designed by architect I. M. Pei that housed the School of Journalism at Syracuse University and which opened in 1964, is a well-known example of brutalism. The Everson Museum, Syracuse, N.Y., also designed by Pei, and which opened in 1968, is a more specific example. The building design at the center of “The Brutalist” seems to echo elements from The Everson.

The movie’ title symbolizes the personality of the architect in “The Brutalist,” his mentor and the power-politics between the two men.

In “The Brutalist,” Hungarian Jew Holocaust survivor László Tóth (Adrien Brody) departs the Buchenwald concentration camp, near Weimar, Germany, and emigrates to the United States. His wife, Erzsébet Tóth (Felicity Jones), and their niece, Zsófia (Raffey Cassidy), are left behind.

Tóth stays in Philadelphia with his cousin Attila (Alessandro Nivola), and his wife, Audrey (Emma Laird), who have a retail furniture business.

Tóth and his cousin are commissioned to renovate the library in the mansion of a Bucks County estate owned by a wealthy industrialist, Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce). They are hired by Van Buren’s son Harry (Joe Alwyn).

The results displease Van Buren. Tóth and his cousin have a falling out. Tóth descends into poverty and develops a drug habit.

Van Buren makes amends with Tóth and hires him to design a community center on a Bucks County bluff dedicated to Van Buren’s late mother. There’s more to the rest of the story, but we’ll let that for you to discover.

“The Brutalist” has antecedents in the annals of cinema, including subject matter and scenes that recall “The Fountainhead” (1949), based on the Ayn Rand novel (1943) about egomaniac architect Howard Roark (Gary Cooper); director Francis Ford Coppola’s “Tucker: The Man and His Dream” (1988), for its sweep of industrialist America, and “Foxcatcher” (2014), for its portrayal of Main Line Philadelphia megalomania.

The clumsy screenplay (Oscar nominee, original screenplay, “The Brutalist”) is by the film’s director Brady Corbet (director, “Vox Lux,” 2018; “The Childhood of a Leader,’ 2015), co-writing with his collaborator Mona Fastvold.

One wonders if the two, Corbet and Fastvold, ever set foot in Philadelphia or Bucks County. The screenplay refers to “the Bucks County mayor.” Did the screenwriters have fact-checkers?

Moreover, they posit the community center, to paraphrase Van Buren, as bringing culture to Doylestown. Granted, the time frame is before the James A. Michener Art Museum was founded in Doylestown in 1988.

However, the film’s time frame is not before other Bucks County landmarks and notables, which “The Brutalist” ignores.

“The Brutalist” spans roughly 1947-1960 (not including a 1980-set epilogue). There’s no mention of The Mercer Museum, 1913-1916; nor the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works, circa 1898; nor Fonthill Castle, 1908-1912; the latter the home of archaeologist Henry Chapman Mercer (1856 - 1930) and, ironically, an example of poured-in-place concrete.

Though there’s a snide reference to “a shopping center in New Hope,” there no sense of the arts colony that New Hope spawned, starting with the New Hope School, aka Pennsylvania Impressionism (among the painters: Walter Schofield, 1867-1944; George Sotter, 1879 -1953; Henry Snell, 1858-1943; William Langson Lathrop, 1859 - 1938); nor Bucks County Playhouse, founded in 1939 by playwright Moss Hart and others, and where Grace Kelly made her professional stage debut in 1949; nor the storied New York City literati, actors, celebrities and songwriters who frequented Bucks County, including Dorothy Parker and S.J. Perelman, and those who put down roots there, notably Oscar Hammerstein (1895 - 1960), who with Richard Rodgers turned the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Michener (1907- 1997), “Tales of the South Pacific” (1947). into the Broadway hit musical, “South Pacific” (1949).

“The Brutalist” includes intriguing Pennsylvania newsreel footage touting the state’s industry and pluck, with what looks like steel-making at the former Bethlehem Steel Corp. south side Bethlehem plant, and a glimpse of Easton’s Center Square.

What saves “The Brutalist” (Oscar nominee, motion picture) from mere melodrama is the rhapsodic and operatic direction by Corbet, working again with director of photography Lol Crawley (Oscar nominee, cinematography, “The Brutalist”); editor Dávid Jancsó (Oscar nominee, editing, “The Brutalist”); production designer Judy Becker (Oscar nominee, production design, “The Brutalist”) and composer Daniel Blumberg (Oscar nominee, original score, “The Brutalist”), and the performances.

Adrien Brody is magnificent as László Tóth. His performance (Oscar nominee actor, “The Brutalist”) is certainly one of the year’s best, if not the best. Brody (Oscar recipient, actor, “The Pianist,” 2003) transmits oceans of pain in his ever-expressive face.

Guy Pearce (Oscar nominee, supporting actor, “The Brutalist”) is frighteningly good as Harrison Lee Van Buren.

Felicity Jones (Oscar nominee, supporting actress, “The Brutalist”) is a revelation.

“The Brutalist” is worth seeing for cinema fans, architecture buffs and fans of Adrien Brody. Just remember to save some popcorn for intermission.

“The Brutalist,” MPAA Rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian. Contains some adult material. Parents are urged to learn more about the film before taking their young children with them.) for strong sexual content, graphic nudity, rape, drug use and some language; Genre: Epic, Drama; Run Time: 3 hours, 34 minutes. Distributed by A24.

Credit Readers Anonymous: “The Brutalist” was filmed in Budapest, Hungary, and Carrara, Tuscany and Venice, Italy, from March 16 to May 5, 2023.

At The Movies: “The Brutalist” was seen in IMAX at AMC, AMC Center Valley 16. The film, in VistaVision, warranted the premium price.

Theatrical Movie Domestic Weekend Box Office, Feb. 21-23: “Captain America: Brave New World,” starring Anthony Mackie as the new Captain America, aka Sam Wilson, and Harrison Ford as the new President Thaddeus Ross, continued at No. 1 with $28.2 million in 4,105 theaters, $141.2 million, two weeks.

2. “The Monkey,” a horror film based on a Stephen King short story from “Skeleton Crew,” $14.2 million in 3,200 theaters, opening. 3. “Paddington in Peru,” third installment of the live-action animated adventure comedy based on the Paddington stories, dropped one place, $6.5 million in 3,890 theaters, $25.2 million, two weeks. 4. “Dog Man” stayed in place, $5.9 million in 3,179 theaters, $78.7 million, four weeks. 5. “Ne Zha 2,” a Chinese animated fantasy adventure film breaking box office records in China, $4.3 million in 800 theaters, $14.8 million, two weeks. 6. “Heart Eyes” dropped three places, $2.8 million in 3,003 theaters, $26.7 million, three weeks. 7. “Chhaava,” 2025’s highest-grossing Indian Hindi-language film, moved up three places, $2.6 million in 390 theaters, $4.8 million, two weeks. 8. “Mufasa: The Lion King” dropped two places, $2.5 million in 1,925 theaters, $245.3 million, 10 weeks. 9. “The Unbreakable Boy,” a drama about a boy who has a brittle-bone disease and autism, $2.5 million in 1,687 theaters, opening. 10. “One of Them Days,” $1.4 million in 1,104 theaters, $46 million, six weeks.

Movie box office information from Box Office Mojo as of Feb. 23 is subject to change.

Unreel, Feb. 28:

“Last Breath,” PG-13: Alex Parkinson directs Woody Harrelson, Simu Liu and Finn Cole in the Thriller. The movie is based on a true story about deep-sea divers who attempt to rescue a trapped crewmate.

“Riff Raff,” R: Dito Montiel directs Jennifer Coolidge, Ed Harris, Gabriel Union, Pete Davidson, Emanuela Postacchini, Bill Murray and Dustin Hoffman in the Comedy. A former criminal’s life is disrupted at a family reunion.

Movie opening information from Internet Movie Database as of Feb. 23 is subject to change.

Four Popcorn Boxes out of Five Popcorn Boxes