The Father (Florian Zeller, 2020) wr. Florian Zeller from his own play, prod. David Parfitt, Jean-Louis Livi, Philippe Carcassonne; Anthony Hopkins (his character is called Anthony), Olivia Colman, Mark Gatiss; 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.
Chris Barsanti:
In scrambling expectations for the audience, Zeller puts them in the same position as Anthony, confused and looking for something to hang on to. Like Vonnegut’s Billy Pilgrim, Anthony has become unstuck in time. Unlike Pilgrim, who remembers everything at once and lives an entire lifetime simultaneously, Anthony can only watch as his mind slowly erases everything he once knew. Slant.
GG:
I was a bit anxious approaching this, as I'm 77, and I knew it was a film about a man with dementia. However, it turned out to be not that so much as a fictional family drama which uses the idea of a person with dementia to construct the plot. It's - simply - clever.
as above
Garry Gillard | reviews | New: 19 March, 2021 | Now: 12 May, 2021