Film Review: The Father
Olivia Colman as Anne, Anthony Hopkins as Anthony in THE FATHER. Photo by Sean Gleason. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
The subject of aging, Alzheimers and dementia has become an unavoidable fact of life as aging populations seem to be living so much longer and we have come to know and reckon with the symptoms and their effects on everyone connected to the afflicted ones. The ubiquity of this issue has made it a topic that is increasingly addressed and mined in the arts in general and the performing arts in particular. Being no longer young myself makes it tempting to avoid. But, as a consumer of performing arts I cannot avoid it and I have to say I have never seen such an intensely sensitive and immersive treatment of this issue.
Anthony Hopkins as Anthony in THE FATHER. Photo by Sean Gleason. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
This debut film by French playwright Florian Zeller starring Anthony Hopkins as the titular character is based on the stage play first presented on London’s West End in 2012 as part of a family trilogy. The Father was brought to Broadway in 2016 starring Frank Langella who won a Tony Award for his performance. When Zeller adapted his play for film (with Christopher Hampton) he wrote it for Anthony Hopkins and named the character Anthony. At age 83, Hopkins’ commitment to the part clearly involved his own intimations of mortality, which are brought to bear in a bravura performance. His devoted daughter Anne (Olivia Colman) is the very soul of patience and compassion with steady resilience as she endeavors to do the right thing for the complicated man that her father has become as his condition worsens. He is a charming and jocular character who is mostly in denial with only flickers of insecurity. His moods range from lucid, confused, embarrassed and belligerent. In short, he is a handful.
Almost all of the action takes place in his comfortable art-filled London flat which is cleverly and confusingly able to morph into the flats of both of his daughters. This sleight of hand gives us a sense of what it is like to be Anthony. His confusion becomes our own when the roles and stories get switched with different actors playing the husbands (Rufus Sewel, Mark Gatis) and Anne (Olivia Williams) and the carer (Imogen Poots), hired by Anne to help at home. The information which we receive is as non-linear as Anthony’s forcing us to try to fill in the real facts with Anthony’s unreliable grasp on reality and paranoid imaginings. We never find out the truth about Lucy, the other daughter.
Anthony Hopkins as Anthony, Olivia Colman as Anne in THE FATHER. Photo by Sean Gleason. Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
If this sounds harrowing, it is. It is also such a brilliant piece of ensemble acting and direction that I was mesmerized enough to watch it again. It has a beautiful soundtrack by Ludovico Einaudi interspersed with Anthony’s favorite opera arias from The Pearl Fishers and Maria
Callas’ Casta Diva. It is not for the faint of heart, but well worth seeing for all the reasons which make brilliant drama a thing worth making and appreciating. It has been nominated for four
Golden Globes. Very impressive for a first film. (Available on Amazon)
