The Father: Devastatingly Empathetic

I knew The Father was about Anthony, a man with dementia (Anthony Hopkins), and his daughter, Anne (Olivia Colman), who is his primary caregiver. I knew it had gotten excellent reviews, was nominated for several Oscars, and I love Olivia Colman, so I was fairly certain I was going to like this movie. What I didn’t know, however, was how devastated I would feel at the end of it.

Directed by Florian Zeller, and based on his play of the same name, this movie has a wonderfully twisty narrative structure that plays with time and characters and leaves you all muddled up and confused. Which is the point, because Zeller is trying to put you in Anthony’s shoes. This movie is short, barely over 90 minutes long, but at the end of it, you will feel shaken up and bewildered, and have a much better understanding of what it must be like to suffer from dementia and feel like you’re slowly losing your grip on reality. It is such an effective and empathetic portrait of the confusion and anger you can feel as the world around you ceases to make sense, and Anthony Hopkins' performances will wring your heart out by the end.

Anthony Hopkins is magnificent in this film. At this point in his career, no one needs to be told that the man is a great actor, but it is still wonderful to see him in this role where he gets to deploy his extraordinary abilities. There are moments when he is effortlessly charming and rakish, other moments when he is threatening and scary, and other moments when he is petulantly childish or completely helpless. And Olivia Colman is superb as his daughter who has to put up with this ceaseless whirl of personalities and emotions. She is stoic and trying to cope, but oh man, when that lady's eyes start to well up with her classic Colman tears, you know you're going to lose it at any second. 

The rest of the supporting cast is stacked with stalwarts that should be familiar to anyone who is a fan of British television or Masterpiece Theatre. We've got Mark Gatiss, Rufus Sewell, Imogen Poots, and pleasingly, Olivia Williams (who at one point is playing a bit of a dual role with Olivia Colman, so you can understand why poor Anthony might be confused between the two). They all drop in and out as a rotating cast of characters that get increasingly hard to keep track of until the final scene when everything is devastatingly tied together. The background score is also by one of my favorite composers, Ludovico Einaudi, so every element of this film certainly ganged up on me to provoke a visceral reaction. 

The Father is a deft but emotional film that sneaks up on you and knocks you over the head with its insights on dementia and the toll it takes on your sanity and independence. It is certainly not an easy watch if you have elderly relatives that you might have to take care of some day, but it's a good film to watch right now so that you are more prepared when you eventually have to deal with someone who is going through this horrific experience. The actors are impeccable, the script is spectacular (Christopher Nolan could take a lesson on how to portray the intricacies of time from this film rather than going through all his machinations in Tenet), and by the end, you will be both glad and sad you watched it.