‘The Father’ directed by Florian Zeller (2020)
Adapted by Florian Zeller’s acclaimed stage play, his debut as a movie director is every bit as devastating and memorable as I expected. Anthony Hopkins brings a depth to the role of a man suffering from dementia who by the end reveals to a nurse that he is “losing his leaves, the branches, the wind and the rain”.
This rare moment of self realisation follows many moments of confusion for him, and for us watching the movie. Zeller cleverly leaves many details unexplained and we, like the father, often don’t quite know where we are. What seems to be his own flat turns out the that of his daughter and we fully understand why the visiting nurses seem like threats to his independence.
Hopkins delivers a master class swinging from being a control freak to a man losing a grip on reality. This is a terrifying horror movie despite the absence of monsters. When the father complains “nobody tells me anything”, I cracked up because I heard the voice of my own mother.
The genius of this film is that it puts the viewer inside the head of the victim in a way that never seems manipulative or trite. This is fate that anyone approaching old age fears with good reason.
