Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Marion Cotillard | ... | Ewa Cybulska | |
Joaquin Phoenix | ... | Bruno Weiss | |
Jeremy Renner | ... | Orlando the Magician / Emil | |
Dagmara Dominczyk | ... | Belva | |
Jicky Schnee | ... | Clara | |
Elena Solovey | ... | Rosie Hertz (as Yelena Solovey) | |
Maja Wampuszyc | ... | Edyta Bistricky | |
Ilia Volok | ... | Wojtek Bistricky | |
Angela Sarafyan | ... | Magda Cybulska | |
Antoni Corone | ... | Customs Officer Thomas MacNally | |
Patrick Husted | ... | Priest | |
Patrick Holden O'Neill | ... | Leo Straub (as Patrick O'Neill) | |
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Sam Tsoutsouvas | ... | Oskar Straub |
Robert Clohessy | ... | Immigration Official | |
Adam Rothenberg | ... | Officer DeKeiffer |
1921. In search of a new start and the American dream, Ewa Cybulska and her sister Magda sail to New York from their native Poland. When they reach Ellis Island, doctors discover that Magda is ill, and the two women are separated. Ewa is released onto the mean streets of Manhattan while her sister is quarantined. Alone, with nowhere to turn and desperate to reunite with Magda, she quickly falls prey to Bruno, a charming but wicked man who takes her in and forces her into prostitution. And then one day, Ewa encounters Bruno's cousin, the debonair magician Orlando. He sweeps Ewa off her feet and quickly becomes her only chance to escape the nightmare in which she finds herself. Written by Wild Bunch
There is nothing new or surprising in the story: a poor young immigrant girl who is fresh-off-the-boat taken advantage of, and is sexually exploited by another survivor (just one step above in the food chain ladder) in the golden age of immigration in America.
The acting is good, but the script is quite poor and the direction merely goes through the motions of formal correctness without adding depth, or a true reflection, or a new insight on the matter.
The characters lack in complexity and reality; the revealing of social injustice is more a "homework making" of a formal outrage than a truly insightful exploration of human miseries.
It is an average film with minor hits and major misses which, in my opinion, will not make its way through history, even for easy-to-please audiences as the lovers of Hollywood movies.