Eastern European immigrant Ewa (Marion Cotillard) arrives at Ellis Island and is promptly separated from her ailing sister Magda (Angela Sarafyan). Stranded in a new land with no one to turn to, she begs a passing stranger (Joaquin Phoenix) for help. He takes her to a circus where a magician (Jeremy Renner) tells her, “My god, you’re beautiful.” Cotillard is lit beautifully and steals several meaningful looks and glances.
And that’s about all you’ll learn from The Immigrant’s trailer, which is all dramatic lighting, heartbreakingly sorrowful music, and Cotillard posed like a 1930s ingenue. It’s a tragically glamorous spot, but it leaves out much of the plot: that Phoenix’s character forces Ewa into prostitution, and that Renner’s magician inspires her to escape her dire straits.
The Immigrant opens May 16.
