"The Father" -- Movie Review

 

This week at MoMA Film’s Virtual Cinema, I streamed the drama “The Father” , starring Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman. 

Synopsis

When an elderly man suffering from dementia refuses the assistance of a nurse’s care while at home, will his besieged daughter have to consider institutionalizing him?

Story

Anthony (Hopkins) is a retired engineer who has not been able to hold it together as he’s aged.  Showing his senility at every turn, he forgets where he lives, believes his younger daughter Lucy is still alive (she died years ago in an accident) and can never find his wristwatch.  Other than that, it’s all good – except for the fact that he’s been a drain on his daughter Anne (Colman), on whom he relies for care.  She’s tried any number of times to get home attendants to watch after him, but they’ve quit because he’s too difficult to deal with.  This is having an impact on Anne’s personal life – she wants to leave London and move to Paris so she can live with her boyfriend … but she must make sure her father is well taken care of first.

Finally, Anne thinks she may have found the perfect fit:  Laura (Imogen Poots) is a home aid who seems to have the right temperament to deal with Anthony.  Upon first meeting her, Anthony becomes irresistibly charming and Laura agrees to take the job.  Not long into her assignment, she finds that it's not as easy as it initially appeared; Anthony is regularly irritable and angry at her for a variety of reasons.  Laura finds that Anthony tests her patience at every turn – and when he becomes abusive, it’s just too much to bear. 

Anne now finds herself at a turning point:  can she trust her father to hold on to this home aid or will he wind up driving her away, too?  When she takes Anthony to a doctor for an evaluation, it seems that his condition is only worsening.  He’s increasingly disoriented and having trouble clinging to reality, having delusions and imagining everyone is out to get him.  Once it is recommended that Anthony be put in a nursing home, Anne is forced to make a decision:  should she sacrifice her personal life for her father or take off to Paris and leave him to be taken care of by strangers?

Review

A major conceit of “The Father” is that many of the scenes are designed to confuse the viewer.  This is done intentionally so as to bring you into Anthony’s world in order for you to experience the sense of ongoing disorientation he’s constantly having.  Whether you find this technique to be courageously artistic or just plain annoying may depend on how much you want to see a work of art or to simply be told an interesting story.  If you fall into the latter category, then you will likely wind up being infuriatingly frustrated. 

There is no doubt that Hopkins gives an incredible performance here, elevating most of the rest of “The Father”; ultimately, if anything will cause you to hold on to the movie, it is this.  Olivia Colman’s performance is sympathetic to the extreme, given how much patience she needs in order to tolerate her father’s frequently cruel and curmudgeonly outbursts.  Having said all of that, it’s a bit wearisome to sit through when you feel that the filmmaker is merely trying to gaslight the audience for an hour and a half.  If the constant attempts at manipulation don’t grind your gears, then you may actually appreciate this film.        

Following the screening, there was a stream of an interview with screenwriter/director Florian Zeller, who also wrote the stage play on which this movie is based.  Although, this is Zeller’s feature film debut as a director, he has been writing for a long time.  When he was 20 years old, he had a novel published; it was a success and critics declared him a wunderkind.  While in his 20’s, he discovered the theater and began to write plays.  This play was one of his greatest successes and went on the road (he’s French and when it was translated to English, Frank Langella was one of the actors that played the lead).