The Father (2020) – Florian Zeller (Friday’s Finest)

• Anthony: I feel as if I’m losing all my leaves.
• The Woman: Your leaves?
• Anthony: Yeah.
• The Woman: What do you mean?
• Anthony: The branches and the wind and the rain. I don’t know what’s happening anymore. Do you know what’s happening?

I thought I would never witness Anthony Hopkins broach upon or eclipse his remarkable performance in Remains of the Day, but what he accomplished in The Father has to be included in his Holy Trinity of crowning achievements; namely the aforementioned two movies and Silence of the Lambs. When I first heard about all the accolades and the subject matter in 2020 I don’t know why I wasn’t chomping at the bit to see today’s featured movie. I should have been and regret not having seen it in the cinema. I think The Father is one of the most finely crafted and executed dramas made post-2000.

Apart from the performances, it was the psychological aspect of this complex drama that drew me in. The movie casts the audience member into the very mind of the Father suffering from dementia. Like him, you have to try to distil reality from illusion. Do you remember those ‘choose your own adventure’ books where you assume the role of the protagonist and make choices determining the main character’s actions and the plot’s outcome? To me, The Father feels like that experience in cinematic form. You often hear people plead after their excitement of having had a great movie experience: ‘Oh you must see this‘; well I would just like to up the ante. If you want to know why The Father has been cited as one of the best films of the 2020s and the 21st century then do yourself a favour – drop all tools…watch this movie.

IMDB Storyline:
Having scared off his latest caregiver, Anthony, an ailing octogenarian Londoner gradually succumbing to dementia, feels abandoned when his concerned daughter, Anne, tells him she’s moving to Paris. Confused and upset, debilitated by his rapid mental decline and warped perspective, Anthony loses his grip on reality as he struggles to navigate the opaque landscape of the present and past. As a result, fading memories and glimpses of lucidity trigger sudden mood swings, distorting Anthony’s surroundings, loved ones, and even time. But why has his younger daughter stopped visiting? And who are the strangers that burst in on Anthony?

The director Florian Zeller co-wrote the screenplay with fellow playwright Christopher Hampton on the basis of Zeller’s 2012 play Le Père. The Father premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on 27 January 2020. After its wide release was delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic, it was released in France and the UK in May and June respectively in 2021. The film grossed $34 million worldwide on a $6 million budget and was acclaimed by critics, who lauded the performances of Hopkins and Colman. At the 93rd Academy Awards, The Father received six nominations, including Best Picture; Hopkins won Best Actor and Zeller and Hampton won Best Adapted Screenplay.

I’m normally reticent to present a trailer or scenes from a movie reviewed here at ‘Friday’s Finest‘ so as not to spoil the plot and such; but for someone unfamiliar or teetering on the fence of whether they want to commit to watching for 97 minutes a man gradually ‘lose his marbles’, then I think the trailer below only enhances one’s intrigue and anticipation in finding out – what the hell is going on.

References:
1. The Father (2020 film) – Wikipedia
2. The Father – IMDB

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“The more I live, the more I learn. The more I learn, the more I realize, the less I know.”- Michel Legrand