"The Father": Movie Review
Written By Alex Greenbaum
Dementia can be terribly debilitating. Witnessing an individual's mental capacity start to vanish before your eyes is not only horrific but also a melancholic process for the family and friends who have to endure. In director/ writer Florian Zeller's "The Father" (adapted from the stage play by Zeller) we are put in the unfortunate shoes of a man with severe dementia. Ben Smithard's cunning cinematography, Christopher Hampton ("Atonement") and Zeller's witty screenplay, and Anthony Hopkin's/Olivia Colman's powerful performances elevate its formulaic concept.
Anthony (Hopkins) tries managing his severe memory loss, as his caring daughter (Colman) attempts to supply support for him and inevitably transition him to a managed care facility.
The craftmanship on display to effectively manipulate the audience's own perceptions is an extraordinary feat. With Zeller's sharp direction and Smithard's mind-bending camera tricks, there's an edge of your seat quality (much like the horror genre) to the film's dynamics that will make you contemplate your own cognition. Although a sense of tedium and monotony do present themselves more than a few times, Hopkins and Colman deliver emotionally charged performances that slowly build the intensity, as Anthony's dementia worsens. And regardless of the number of attempts to tap into each character's psyche, the ambiguous behaviors are far more intriguing.
While "The Father" hinges on two outstanding actors to carry most of the film's achievements, the filmmakers' attention to detail should not be ignored. The creative handling of its subject is what distinguishes it from many other films of its ilk, making "The Father" a worthy adaptation.
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