The Father (2020)

Director: Florian Zeller
Stars: Anthony Hopkins, Olivia Colman, Mark Gatiss
Runtime: 97 minutes

Synopsis: A man refuses all assistance from his daughter as he ages. As he tries to make sense of his changing circumstances, he begins to doubt his loved ones, his own mind, and even the fabric of his reality.

Verdict: I cannot fathom how difficult life can become for a person suffering from dementia. The mere thought of not recognizing people you’ve known for years, constantly forgetting where you placed some of your belongings, or even not remembering how to do basic activities is genuinely terrifying to me. Florian Zeller’s directorial debut, an adaptation of the acclaimed play he wrote himself, dissects the relationship between a daughter, Anne, and her father, Anthony. The latter was diagnosed with the illness for quite a while now, and has a nasty habit of angering off caretakers with his quarrelsome attitude. Anne is left to pick up the pieces of his actions, forcing her to witness her dad losing touch with the real world.

“The Father”, as proven by its six Oscar nominations, has been making headlines recently as being one of the finest films to be released in the past year. It’s a challenging watch that puts the audience in the shoes of both the protagonist and his entourage, allowing us to experience the neurological disease and its effects on both the people who suffer from it and loved ones caring for them. At the center of it, two brilliant performances bring raw emotion to every scene featuring their characters. Without Anthony Hopkins’ range or Olivia Colman’s perfect capture of a mixture of concern, frustration, love, and fear, the film simply wouldn’t have worked. It’s through their eyes that we view the movie, and realistic acting is a must in these cases to keep the audience afloat. However, it’s Zeller’s creative choices that stand out more than once as he opts to present the story within an atmosphere reminiscent of that of a mystery thriller. Anthony, and by extension the audience, is constantly questioning what is real and what is not as shown to us with changes in actors confusingly playing similar roles or scenes presented in an intentionally puzzling manner. I found this decision to be a rather inspired one as it truly elevated the false-reality that our titular character was living in… until the film’s closing minutes which, without spoiling anything, betrayed everything it had been building so far to deliver the audience with a cheap conclusion.

“The Father” was, for the most part, an engaging drama that efficiently highlighted the frightening symptoms of dementia. It was a decent enough watch until the very end, where even Anthony Hopkins’ wonderful acting couldn’t save the direction taken by the narrative, a change that turned the disease from being the subject of the film to it becoming the catalyst of a pseudo-shocking ending we’ve seen a million times before in movies that set it up in a more proper way.

FINAL GRADE: 6/10