The Father

by Robbo

---

Posted on 30 June 2021

---

Rating -

The Father is a 2020 drama film co-written and directed by Florian Zeller, in his directorial debut; he co-wrote it with fellow playwright Christopher Hampton based on Zeller’s 2012 play Le Père. A French-British co-production, the film stars Anthony Hopkins, Olivia Colman, Mark Gatiss, Imogen Poots, Rufus Sewell, and Olivia Williams.

The film follows Anthony, an ageing man who must deal with his progressing dementia.

Viewed from his perspective, it shows what he and the people around him, especially his daughter Anne have to cope with on a day to day basis.

The film is quite confusing, meant to illustrate what is going on in Anthony’s mind. We jump from one time frame to another, often repeating scenes with different actors playing the same characters, we are able to share in his confusion and frustration.

When Anna meets a new man and plans to move to Paris she has to put Anthony into a retirement home which confuses him even more.

You can tell the film is adapted from a play as the majority of it uses a single location which adds to the sense of feeling trapped, not in a physical sense but trapped in your own mind.

All of the cast give good, believable performances with the stand out’s being Anthony Hopkins, well deserving of his Academy Award for Best Actor and Olivia Coleman, who just missed out on the Academy Award for Best Actress.

This film is difficult, almost painful to watch in some places, with an ending that actually brought me to tears.

This is perhaps Hopkins best performance of his career, an amazing feat considering he was 84 when he made this, the oldest ever actor to win an Oscar.

This film deeply effected me, I left the cinema emotionally drained and it took a couple of days for me to be able to write this review.

I have absolutely nothing negative to say about The Father and I would insist that everyone should watch.

---