The Father: A Hauntingly Honest Portrayal of Dementia
Anthony (Anthony Hopkins), a man in his early 80s, lives alone in his spacious London apartment. He stubbornly refuses the help of caregivers hired by his daughter, Anne (Olivia Colman). However, assistance is undeniably needed. Anthony becomes increasingly disoriented within his own home and, more alarmingly, begins to lose his grip on reality. He forgets names, struggles to recall significant events, and is unsure whether he lives alone or with his daughter, constantly surprised by new faces in his home.
Olivia Colman as Anne in “The Father”
At first glance, “The Father” might seem like a typical Oscar-bait film – a drama meticulously crafted to win awards by tackling a weighty subject. Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease have long been considered surefire material for Hollywood executives. It takes considerable effort to avoid eliciting sympathy for characters battling these illnesses, especially when portrayed by A-list actors. Julianne Moore, for instance, won her first Oscar for “Still Alice,” a safe and calculated drama that expertly manipulates the audience’s emotions with sad music and displays of the protagonist’s helplessness. It seemed “The Father” would fall into the same category, but Florian Zeller instead delivers one of the most immersive, frightening, honest, and creatively insightful films about dementia.
Anthony Hopkins as Anthony in “The Father”
Most films on this subject focus on documenting the agonizingly slow process of decline. The audience witnesses the drama of a person losing themselves, becoming a mere shell of their former self in the eyes of their loved ones. The afflicted individual might get lost, become incontinent, struggle with basic tasks, and become a burden on their family. While undoubtedly difficult to watch, filmmakers’ obsession with the physically helpless character often feels manipulative and heavy-handed. In this regard, “The Father” is a unique film that manages to approach the familiar subject from a different perspective. Instead of forcing the audience to identify with exhausted caregivers or simply empathize with the decline, the creators use accessible means to convey the confusion, anger, and fear of a dementia patient who genuinely doesn’t understand what’s happening to them.
Anthony Hopkins as Anthony in “The Father”
A Theatrical Adaptation That Transcends the Stage
“The Father” is an adaptation of a play of the same name by European playwright Florian Zeller, who personally brought it to the big screen. Often, adaptations of theatrical productions feel uncinematic and lack a sense of freedom in the frame. However, in the case of “The Father,” the intimacy, conversely, helps to convey the claustrophobia, as if the viewer and Hopkins’ character are trapped in an ordinary but constantly changing apartment. Zeller uses fairly basic techniques for immersion, disorientation, and conveying Anthony’s confusion: no jarring cinematic tricks that tear the fabric of the film, but instead echoes of an unreliable narrator, casting different actors in the same role, dialogues that shift in meaning, or a changing interior environment.
Olivia Colman as Anne in “The Father”
Simple Techniques, Profound Impact
This intelligent simplicity works. The most ordinary and accessible maneuvers transform the story into a domestic thriller, a Kafkaesque horror about a man who can’t understand who has gone mad: him or the world around him. At the same time, “The Father” doesn’t overuse formalistic techniques and uses the narrative concept to tell a story about a man who rediscovers tragic moments of the past and learns to live in a new way. The only concern during viewing was the film’s ending – when you understand the rules of the game, you start to wonder what could possibly put an end to the odyssey of a hero wandering through the labyrinths of memory. However, even here, the creators didn’t reinvent the wheel and presented a simple but only true ending, knocking the viewer off their feet with childlike naivety.
Hopkins’ Masterful Performance
However, the above-mentioned techniques and ideas would hardly have worked with the same force without Anthony Hopkins in the film. He, of course, even in “Transformers” and “Thor,” acted as if these were not Hollywood blockbusters, but the most important productions of the London theater. But in “The Father,” the actor, even by his own high standards, performed one of the main and most complex roles in his fruitful career. This is not just senile helplessness, but a desire to prove that he is still worth something; it is anger, resentment, and a frighteningly plausible fear in his eyes. A masterfully played role, worthy of any recognition and awards.