The opening shot of “The Immigrant” shows the Statue of Liberty’s back turned toward the camera. She represents defiance, and wants her new visitors to know that their trip across the Atlantic will ultimately make for an elegiac, if not beautiful, tale.

James Gray’s newest film, which debuted in competition at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, is probably his best yet. Overcoming the complexity issues of Gray’s “Two Lovers” and the structural problems of “We Own the Night,” “The Immigrant” is a melancholy tale set in the 1920s that holds little to nothing back in the way of distraught creativity.

Gray hones in on storytelling elements of emotion and style that course through many great American novels, presenting his elegant vision of a post-World War I New England through his own visual medium. The director’s fourth collaboration with actor Joaquin Phoenix, “The Immigrant” is filled with scenes emboldened with purpose, mainly by the inspiring talents of the film’s cast.

In her first leading English role, acclaimed French actress Marion Cotillard stars as Ewa Cybulska, a Polish woman who escaped her country with her sister Magda (Angela Sarafyan) to seek opportunity in the West. Magda is taken to the infirmary on Ellis Island during their passage through immigration, held for treatment of tuberculosis, while Ewa is nearly deported for her recent actions aboard the ferry.

Bruno Weiss (Phoenix), a wealthy Manhattan businessman, comes across the beautiful Ewa, offering her passage into the country in exchange for work. More devoted to getting her sister into the country than her own well-being, Ewa follows the charming Bruno into his wicked occupation, which involves having his many foreign women perform flamboyantly on stage and engage in behind-the-curtain prostitution.

Ewa’s life takes a despairingly dark turn, assisted by Cotillard’s own ability to transform at the flip of a switch. Initially a timid Catholic girl who is hesitant to reveal herself, Ewa follows the ebb and flow of her circumstances, adapting while never truly losing her bountiful pride, or faithfulness to her sister. Cotillard embodies the shy persona with a convincing innocence, but she shows her talents best in scenes where her character’s passion grows into a deeply rooted anger toward herself and her captive treatment.

The same goes for the film’s two other main actors. Phoenix, keeps a sustained glamour throughout the film, but shines when his character inevitably loses his unlawful cool. Jeremy Renner as Emil, the likeable magician who attempts to take Ewa away from a life of sorrow, is the friendly savior of positivity that she needs, but not one that the story’s heartbreaking trials will let her have easily.

Each character portrays his own archetype perfectly to go with the film’s complexities. As harrowing as Ewa’s journey is, it’s the intriguing twists of Gray’s story that allow for a real sense of her abandonment in society. Some scenes do fall flat, but when Gray lets the intensity of his plot mix with his actors, nothing holds back “The Immigrant” from its fair share of startlingly effective moments.

The melodrama of Gray’s world is omnipresent, occasionally keeping his piece from letting even slivers of hope cross the viewer’s mind. But the message that Gray sends, impactful to a fault, is presented at a heartily interesting high note. He lets Cotillard and Phoenix grapple with the film’s varying sense of realism, and its struggle with mortality, without holding back.

With “The Immigrant,” Gray reopens the field of tense historical dramas for a discussion of morals and believability. He provides the imagination, but that isn’t to say participants shouldn’t leave out some American dreams of their own.

– Sebastian Torrelio

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