REVIEW

Intro: Anthony Hopkins and a top-notch ensemble may touch a raw nerve in The Father, but this Oscar-winning portrait of dementia deserves its lavish accolades

UNLESS you have been oblivious to the film screen these past two months or so, you will know by now that The Father is about dementia.

Specifically, it’s about dementia as interpreted by the Oscar-winning Sir Anthony Hopkins, who also has a BAFTA to show for his endeavours.

Film Trailer –

The driving force behind this film, however, is French playwright Florian Zeller, who adapted and directed his own 2012 stage hit for the big screen. He, too, won an Academy Award and a BAFTA, shared with his accomplished co-writer Sir Christopher Hampton (Dangerous Liaisons, Atonement). The Father is not short of lavish accolades.

For the screenwriters, the question is whether audiences will adore it as much as film critics. To do so, they will need to see it, but I am not entirely sure that, with cinemas now blessedly open again, such a heartrendingly moving but fundamental film about dementia will be a wildly popular choice.

That the film is packed with thunderous resonance for so many people might count against it at the box office. Cinematic escapism, for anyone who has watched or witnessed the mental deterioration of an ageing relative or friend, it is emphatically not.

That said, it should be watched. There have been numerous films over the past decade or so in which dementia has played a central role. But even the best of them, such as Alexander Payne’s 2013 comedy Nebraska (or on television, the lacerating Elizabeth Is Missing, with Glenda Jackson), have shone a bright light on this debilitating condition from the outside looking in.

The captivating cleverness of Zeller’s film, though it only gradually dawns, is that it projects from the inside looking out.

We first encounter Anthony (Hopkins) in a handsome flat in London’s Maida Vale. His gentle middle-aged daughter, Anne (Olivia Colman), breaks it to him that she has fallen in love and is moving to Paris, so he will need a new live-in-carer. The last two, it seems, have quit.

Anthony, though sweet and mellow one moment, can be cruel and cantankerous the next. Looking after him is clearly a challenge. Every time he mislays his watch, he is certain someone has stolen it.

But there is still evidence of his intelligence and charisma. He is soothed, too, by classical music. Then he meets a man in his flat, Paul (Mark Gatiss), who claims to be Anne’s husband.

Anthony breaks it to him that she has met someone else and is relocating to Paris. “Oops-a-daisy,” he adds, childishly amused by his own mischief-making.

Then it sems that the flat is not his apartment at all but belongs to Anne and Paul. Did she really mention Paris? As Zeller continues to undermine our certainties, he plays even with the casting as he introduces Olivia Williams and Rufus Sewell as the daughter and son-in-law, it becomes clear what he is doing.

We’re experiencing Anthony’s confusion ourselves. This device gathers pace and intensity, but never in a mannered or laboured way. It is very adroitly handled.

II

THROUGHOUT it all, it is impossible to take your eyes off Hopkins, even with such a splendid cast of characters around him. There’s an almost upbeat scene when Laura (Imogen Poots) arrives to be interviewed for the carer’s job, and Anthony dazzled by her youth and prettiness, becomes flirtatious. “Ding dong,” he says, coming over all Leslie Phillips.

He declares that Laura reminds him of his other daughter, Lucy, the one he never sees yet who remains his favourite. Then, having beguiled Laura with charm, he crushes her with cruelty.

It is a mesmerisingly powerful performance, the throbbing heart (and ailing mind) of a beautifully observed film.

The Father might not entirely resonate with everyone who has seen the pitilessness of dementia. This family, for example, is ineffably middle-class and affluent, with no suggestion that anyone needs to worry about the financial implications of Anthony’s increasing needs. Also, the Poots character, for someone meant to have a record of caring for old people, seems strangely clueless.

Despite these minor gripes, The Father is well worth all the acclaim that has been heaped upon it.

Verdict: Fully deserving of the acclaim ★★★★