The Father Review

Based on an acclaimed play by Florian Zeller, The Father is a Franco-British production and was one of the big winners of the 2021 awards season.

Anthony (Anthony Hopkins) is an elderly man who is suffering from dementia. His daughter, Anne (Olivia Colman) struggles to care for him. Anne has to prepare her father that she’s moving to Paris and needs to find him a new carer. During this preparation Anthony has to navigate the fog of his own mind.

The Father was the film that earned Hopkins a surprise Oscar win. The award was deserved because Hopkins gave a terrific performance. His character was someone who could be sweet and charming, like when he met Laura (Imogen Poots), but he could also be cruel and nasty which affected Anne. It was a performance that felt real as he suffered from mood swings, experienced confusion, and suffered from abuse. Hopkins’ performance was so good that it was heartbreaking at times.

Hopkins was supported by an excellent cast. The promotional material in the UK highlighted that Olivia Colman was also an Academy Award winner. She has proven time and again that she is an incredible actress and of course she excels again as the daughter struggling to deal with her father’s mental state. She wanted to be a good carer and has to hide her own pain and emotions, especially when her father was a monster in front of her.

The other key players were Imogen Poots, Rufus Sewell, Mark Gatiss, and Olivia Williams. All are professional performers and play their roles well. Poots was the clipper young carer who seemed to be able to take Anthony’s nasty traits and Sewell and Gatiss were easy to dislike and distrust in their roles. The small cast shows the film’s origins as a play, along with it being mostly set in a flat.

I would normally describe something like The Father as an actor’s film. It gives actors juicy roles but the direction can sometimes be unremarkable. Zeller, who adapted his own play, was able to elevate the film with his directional approach. Zeller gave The Father a surreal approach because time jumped around, events were repeated and information was distorted. It was confusing and disorientating and this was deliberate because it gave the audience a sense of what it was like to be in Anthony’s mind. Most of the film was told from Anthony’s perspective and it felt like being trapped in a maze because of all the backtracking and different avenues that were taken. At times The Father felt like a thriller because of the sense of distrust Anthony experienced.

The Father was based on a French play. It ended up being produced worldwide and there was a French language film adaptation back in 2015. This goes to show the strength of The Father as a story. A few tweaks can set The Father anywhere: it could be set in America, or Japan, or Italy, or any other halfway wealthy nation. Anthony and Anne’s experience was universal and it does hit close to home if you have had a similar experience with your family.

The Father was a hard watch because of its subject matter. But it was also a rewarding experience because it can give audiences an understanding of what it would like in someone’s fading mind.