by A.J.
Best Pictures #66:
2020 (93rd) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee
The Father
"I feel as if I'm losing my all leaves."
An audience will generally accept whatever happens in the first 15
or 20 minutes of a movie to be true to the reality of the story no matter the genre
or subject matter. This is when we are being introduced to the characters and
their world. Even if a movie begins with a dream or a fantasy, it has told us
what is real and what is not. The Father takes full advantage of this to
put the audience in the mindset of Anthony, an elderly man with dementia. As
you might imagine given the subject matter, this makes for a heavy viewing
experience. The Father is that kind of movie that is well made and well-acted
but cannot exactly be described as entertainment.
The film begins with Anne (Olvia Coleman) meeting her father,
Anthony (Anthony Hopkins), at his large, posh London apartment to tell him that
she has met a man and will be moving to Paris soon, so she will not be able to
look after him anymore. In the next scene Anthony finds a man in his apartment who he (and we) has
never seen before claiming to be Anne’s husband. Anne returns from the market
but Anthony does not recognize her. Neither do we. Now Anne is played by Olivia Williams and says she is not and never was moving to Paris. Director Florian Zeller, who, along with Chistopher Hampton, adapted The Father from his
play, has us share in Anthony’s disorientation and confusion with very
effective but simple techniques. Scenes repeat and loop back on themselves. It seems like this
movie takes place over the same few days again and again. The Oscar nominated
production design makes different apartments look the same but also different.
The cinematography finds ways to shoot a room from different angles so we
aren’t sure if we are in Anthony’s apartment or his daughter’s apartment. There
is a general sense of a timeline (the editing also received an Oscar nomination),
but we are never really sure where we are in the timeline. Anthony often points
to a painting done by his other daughter, Lucy, but then one time it isn’t there anymore.
We see the faint outline that something once hung there. Was the painting
removed? Is he in a different apartment that never had the painting and hung
something else there?
It will come as no surprise that Anthony Hopkins gives not just a
good or very good performance but a great one. His Best Actor Oscar nomination
isn’t just a lifetime achievement placeholder. Anthony’s ever-changing mood and
perspective requires Hopkins to be agitated, charming, confused, calm, lucid,
frightened; often in the same scene. Yet, Hopkins does not use the role just to showcase his talents.
Even in the most dramatic scenes his performance is still full of sympathy; we see
Anthony the character first and the work of Anthony the actor later. Olivia
Coleman is a great scene partner for Hopkins and does a great job conveying her
emotions while trying to hold them back. The rest of the small cast is an
impressive lineup of great performers: Olivia Williams,
Rufus Sewell,
Mark Gatiss, and
Imogen Poots.
The doubling and repetition of scenes and dialogue are indeed a
clever approach to dramatizing the muddled perspective of a dementia sufferer. However,
with this effect having been achieved so quickly and completely at the
beginning of the film, after a while these techniques lose their power and even
become annoying. The movie never gives us an objective reality even in scenes
of Anne alone or with her husband. I understand the filmmaker wanting to keep
us off kilter to fully convey Anthony’s perspective but there are moments where
the film is not from his perspective, including Anne’s
dream/nightmare.
The final scene is what we presume it will be and is emotionally
powerful. While appreciating The Father from an artistic and technical
view, I kept wondering who this movie is for. I cannot imagine people who have
really had Anne’s experience wanting to relive such devastating experiences. It
is not especially grim or dour or mawkish, but it would still be a difficult
watch for a movie night (definitely have something light queued up to watch
afterward). There are other works of fiction and non-fiction about the effects
of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease and the emotional toll it has on everyone
involved, but I suppose this is the only one with an incredible performance
from Anthony Hopkins.
Nominees: David Parfitt, Jean-Louis Livi, Philippe Carcassonne, producers
Director: Florian Zeller
Screenplay: Christopher Hampton, Florian Zeller
Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Olivia Coleman, Olivia Williams
Production Companies: F comme Film, Trademark Films, Cine@, AG Studios, Film4, Orange Studio, Canal+, Ciné+
Distributor: Lionsgate, Sony Pictures Classics
Release Date: February 26th, 2021
Total Nominations: 6, including Best Picture
Other Nominations: Actor-Anthony Hopkins; Supporting Actress-Olivia Coleman; Adapted Screenplay-Christopher Hampton and Florian Zeller; Editing-Yorgos Lamprinos; Production Design-Peter Francis, Cathy Featherstone
