Anthony Hopkins plays a man losing hold of his own mind in The Father, and the film never lets you sit easy. Florian Zeller directs, adapting his own 2012 play Le Père with Christopher Hampton, and the result is a tight, cruel portrait of dementia told entirely through one man’s confusion.
Hopkins plays Anthony, an octogenarian who refuses help from his daughter Anne (Olivia Colman). He drives away carers, hides his watch, and insists he will never leave his flat. Anne tells him she is moving to Paris with a man named James, which he cannot place. That’s the whole setup, and the film spends ninety-seven minutes circling it.
Trailer, via Sony Pictures Classics.
Anne’s Argument
Anne keeps trying to arrange care. Each attempt fails. A carer, Laura (Imogen Poots), arrives, and Anthony insists he doesn’t need help. He later says Laura reminds him of his other daughter Lucy, whom he hasn’t seen for years. Anne returns home and argues with her husband, Paul (Rufus Sewell), who sometimes calls himself James. The film repeats this sequence of events, each pass adding a new twist.
The Watch
The watch is the small hinge of the film. Anthony claims it was stolen by a carer. He can’t find it, then finds it, then loses it again. It stands in for everything he is losing: his memory, his independence, his hold on reality. Colman plays Anne with a patience that borders on exhaustion, and the film earns every moment of it.
Reality Slips
As Anthony’s condition worsens, the world around him shifts. Anne appears as a different woman. Paul appears as two men. The flat itself seems to change shape. This is not a film about a disease, exactly. It is a film about what it feels like to lose the map of your own life.
Mark Gatiss and Olivia Williams round out the cast as The Man and The Woman, though their roles are smaller than the headline names suggest. Ayesha Dharker plays Dr. Sarai, and Roman Zeller appears as a boy.
The Production
The film is a French–British co-production. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on 27 January 2020. Its wide release was delayed by the pandemic. It reached France on 26 May 2021 and the UK on 11 June 2021.
| Release | Date |
|---|---|
| Premiere | 27 January 2020 |
| France | 26 May 2021 |
| UK | 11 June 2021 |
The Awards
The film grossed $36 million on a $6 million budget. It received six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. Hopkins won Best Actor. Zeller and Hampton won Best Adapted Screenplay. Since then, it has been cited as one of the best films of the 2020s and the 21st century.
The Verdict
The Father is a difficult watch, built to unsettle rather than comfort. Hopkins gives a career-best performance as a man whose grip is slipping, and Colman matches him beat for beat as the daughter who cannot hold on either. The film is a masterclass in controlled chaos, a slow-motion breakdown told with precision.
It is not an easy film to recommend. It is a very good one.
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