Thoughts on "The Father"...
Saturday, January 23, 2021 at 12:40PM 
by Eric Blume
It's difficult to write reviews these days, because it feels like no film is ever actually "released", and all of us are scrambling to find what movies are even available, how they're available, if they're VOD, or on a streaming service, etc. Sony Pictures Classics might have made a fumble mostly holding back from view director Florian Zeller's The Father, taken from his own play, starring Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman: if more people could see it, everyone would be talking about it.
The Father is one of those Movies They Don't Make Anymore, i.e., a damn adult drama that challenges your mind and heart. This is a film where the entire creative team treats the audience with dignity and respect, trusting that you're listening and paying attention, and they will reward you with literate ideas, high drama, and an emotional experience. But The Father is more than just that: the storytelling and the visual conceit of the film are surprising and demanding, and it is not a passive undertaking for the viewer...
The less you know about this movie going in, the better, so without tackling plot, yes it is a story about an elderly person with dementia and his family. But unlike most of the stories on this theme, The Father tells it from the inside out rather than from the outside in, and the take is fleshed out in the most original and harrowing of ways.
Movies adapted from plays are harshly criticized for either not "opening them up" enough, or for opening them up TOO much. It's an unenviable situation for any filmmaker. But Zeller does something very tricky and smart with the movie version of his play. He both doubles-down on the "theatricality" of the piece, leaning into the heightened language and high drama inherent in the story, yet at the same time makes the movie supremely "cinematic" by using production design and editing in a way only the film medium can to situate it as a movie. Zeller's result is astonishing: you get the same raft of feelings you get when you're in a theater seeing a play (the intellectual challenge, the elevated acting, the heartstopping silences), but you're held in the hand of someone who has mapped out a cinematic vision for you. Zeller should be receiving all sorts of awards and huzzahs for his incredibly amibitious and gloriously finessed work on this film.
You watch The Father with the expectation that Anthony Hopkins will give a grand performance, and not only does he deliver in spades, but he does what is probably his finest career work outside of Hannibal Lecter. To discuss his performance at length would be to ruin both his moment-by-moment subtlety as well as the cumulatiave force of his work for anyone still to see the film. But suffice it to say that this is a meticulously-crafted piece of acting that is never about him or his acting...he's in complete service to the piece, and there were several moments where I felt a surge of cold blood run through my veins as I watched him.
Olivia Colman does formidable work in partnership with Hopkins. She has some quickly-shifting notes to play throughout, handled with expert technique, and her emotional transparency here feels fresh and new. The additional actors--Imogen Poots, Rufus Sewell, Mark Gatiss, and Olivia Williams--all contribute force and depth to this story, and they are all in perfect harmony on the difficult tone Zeller has them sustain.
For that production design and editing mentioned earlier, the film should receive Oscar nominations as well. We tend to think of both crafts in a limited way, mostly based on how flashy the contribution is. Here, the work of those artists (Peter Francis and Yorgos Lamprinos, respectively) is incredibly subtle, but absolutely instrumental in the storytelling and emotional nuance of the film. Again, to discuss it is to ruin the joy and propulsion of the film, but the craftsmanship on display in this film (as well as the warmly-caressed hues from cinematographer Ben Smithard) are of the highest artistry.
Who has had the good fortune of seeing The Father so far? Detail your thoughts in the comments below.
Reader Comments (24)
Excellent review. My grandma had dementia, and this film changed the way I thought about her experience.
Hopkins deserves a second Oscar for this performance, and Florian Zeller deserves to be nominated for Best Director. I am so mad that Sony Pictures Classics seems to be hiding this movie.
Hopkins winning for this will make him the best Best Actor winner of the 21st century this far.
The Father succeeds at not only showing how painful it is for people with dementia but also for the relatives close to them and that even the best outcomes are still not easy to deal with. The film might be underperforming with critics' awards because of how a tremendous editing that feels like silk slipping through one's fingers makes it look so simple. Quite the opposite, it actually proves this is great cinema.
I agree with @Dl, but so would Chadwick... or Delroy... or Riz.
And Olivia, once again, proving how much of an acting chameleon she is.
Eric -- hear hear. I was stunned when i finally saw this movie. Why are they hiding it from view? It's so fantastically executed...
Me34 -- brilliant insight with "slipping through one's fingers" i think. I hadn't thought of it but it was only about halfway through where my friend and I turned to each other and were like "is this movie doing what we think it's doing?" in terms of production design and editing and such... it feels so organic and unshowy but it's doing a lot!
How can I see this?
Hopkins and Colman should be the Frontruners, not Boseman and easpecially not Seyfried. Enough said! ^^
Hopkins and her deserves to be in the 2 timers club, especially Hopkins with such a career like his!
I hate to say this, but of Boseman dont die, he we will be nominated for she, but Hopkins the Frontrunner. I am absolutly sure about it!
One of the best of the year. A career highlight for Hopkins, as you said, and I really hope Colman also gets in for her moving, tricky role. This film and Sound of Metal are such impressive immersive experiences.
It's going to peak at the right time that's why it's being held back,fresh in voters minds always helps.
If Hopkins can Top Mr Stevens i'd be fine with a 2nd win.
Yes, it's excellent. It's disappointing I didn't get to see it until after I submitted two of my three yearly awards ballots, but oh well. I don't know how much of it is taken directly from the play, but it works so well on screen (and appears more of a challenge than Ma Rainey in terms of how to adapt it to cinema). I loved the way its narrative plays like a rubiks cube. Sometimes things align and then they shift and maybe something is aligned, but the rest has not shuffled. It's sublime.
As much as I loved Delroy Lindo and Riz Ahmed (Ma Rainey and Boseman in it are overrated), Hopkins should be the one to beat. The film made me cry twice and still haunts me. One critic compared it to a horror movie, and in a way, it is. Dementia is the unseen monster. I wish this had been unveiled earlier. Maybe then everything wouldn't be so heavily weighted toward Nomadland.
Saw it in Barcelona on Christmas day. Can't wait for Hopkins to win all the televised trophies.
I saw the play when it was produced at the Pasadena Playhouse with Alfred Molina. I’m curious how the film adapts the material. It sounds like it works on film just as well if not better.
Not Othiefia Stoleman being boring again
If Boseman robs Hopkins of his Oscar I will fucking riot, storm the capitol and renounce NIN and WWE.
Just when y’all thought I couldn’t make fetch happen I flog the dead horse again.
......fetch.
I want him in the two-time Oscar winner's club (he should be a three-timer, actually) but I think AMPAS will want to honor Chadwick Boseman... 😭
This is an outstanding film and Hopkins and Colman are exceptional. Both are worthy of a second Oscar. It really makes me wonder why it is not getting the love it richly deserves. Just disappointing.
Oh no. If it's as good as you say, I might have to actually root for the white man to win Best Director again at the Oscars, and I really don't want to have to do that.
I don't know for certain this is the reason, but this is definitely why I hated the Oscars shifting eligibility dates this year. It encourages some films to come out later to the public even more so than previous years and it's dumb. I feel like some studios are holding movies back so they're fresh on voter's minds i.e. playing to the voters instead of the public which BLAH.
Small movies get released 3 times. #1 is when anyone can see it for the first time (usually a festival). #2 is when it hits theaters, usually limited. #3 is when everyone who wants to can see it. Sometimes, release #1 and #3 are over a year apart. Maybe the idea is to keep the hype up or keep reminding people it exists. It almost never works. Not in an industry where hype is made to go too fast to keep up with anyway.
I’m reminded of the horrible release strategy for Call Me by Your Name. When it hit Sundance in January 2017 it was one of the best movies of the year and I was so excited to see it. By the time I saw it in May 2018, it was one of the best movies of last year. Oscars had happened. No one was talking about it any more. It was still essential viewing in terms of quality but not culturally.
And then they say “no one wants to see movies like this anymore.” It’s all very frustrating.
it is greate
This is an outstanding film and Hopkins and Colman are exceptional. Both are worthy of a second Oscar. It really makes me wonder why it is not getting the love it richly deserves. Just disappointing.
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I couldn't agree more.
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