Review of The Immigrant

THE IMMIGRANT (2014) ** Marion Cotillard, Joaquin Phoenix, Jeremy Renner, Dagmara Dominczyk. Disappointing and one-note period piece set in 1920s NYC where recent Polish émigré Cottilard (emoting up a storm) attempts to keep her rocky citizenship entry to America when her tubercular stricken sister is forced to remain on Ellis Island leaving her to no other alternative than entrusting her fate with shady Phoenix (overacting) as a bureaucrat cum pimp (make your own jokes here) who falls hard for her. Things get worse when his magician cousin (Renner, miscast) enters the picture forming an unlikely lover's triangle in a pot boiling melodrama that goes nowhere fast. Filmmaker James Gray (who co-wrote with Ric Menello) spins his wheels while the immaculate production design by Happy Massee and Darius Khondji's cinematography make up for plodding plotting. Would've been more interesting if the male leads switched roles but too little too late.