In the Grips of Dementia, a Man Tries to Hold On to His Memory

Olivia Colman and Anthony Hopkins 
in "The Father"
Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com

Director Florian Zeller has built an extensive background as a playwright, a career that has spanned almost two decades.  This makes his feature-film debut all the more impressive, which finds him adapting his 2012 play, “Le Père,” into his film, “The Father.”  With an ability to transport us deep into the mental experiences of his main character, we have a superb new talent behind the camera who delivers one of the most emotional experiences that you’ll have with a movie in quite some time.

Anthony (Anthony Hopkins) is an elderly man who’s suffering from dementia and living with his daughter, Anne (Olivia Colman), in her apartment.  As his condition worsens, he will find it harder and harder to keep the memories that he has left.

Hopkins brings another career-defining performance that serves as a heartrending view of seeing someone’s mind deteriorate.  Although we see glimpses of affability that his character exhibits upon meeting his new aid, Laura (Imogen Poots), it’s a sad view because we see the energetic person who he used to be, and to watch him go from that to someone who is moving farther and farther away from his previous self is a shattering view.  Hopkins is able to dig deep into the frustration and pain of his character’s situation and invests us in his hard-hitting transition into a world that continues to evade his grasp.  While Hopkins’ performance is poignant all the way through, it’s his final scene that is sure to cloud your vision with a profusion of tears.

Colman is wonderful portrait of someone who wants the best for her father, even though that parent isn’t someone who they used to be.  You can see both the strength that Anne has in doing what she can for Anthony, but also the sadness in watching her father’s mental health fall apart before her eyes.  Despite the anguish that Hopkins’ character experiences, Colman provides a sense of comfort in seeing the care that Anne gives her father.

The screenplay by Zeller and Christopher Hampton does a tremendous job in showing the audience what it’s like to be experiencing dementia.  Throughout the movie, they have several of the cast members portray more than one character, which causes some cast members to switch their roles and places us in the confusion that Anthony experiences as he tries to hold onto what he knows.  With this, the narrative creates a disturbingly labyrinthine path through Anthony’s descent into dementia as the mental distance between him and his loved ones grows and grows.  Zeller also has bits of dialogue repeated by different characters and repeats a couple of scenes, but with some changes, all of which add to us feeling Anthony losing touch with reality.  The way in which Zeller is able to maintain this storytelling structure isn’t anything less than impressive and creates a disorienting sense of time and place to heartbreaking effect.

To bring his vision of Anthony’s mental state to the screen, Zeller teams with Peter Francis and Cathy Featherstone for a production design that reflects Anthony’s mind.  The details in the set change between scenes, and whether they be big or small alterations, they’re enough to make us uneasy as we experience an environment that becomes less familiar to us as the movie goes on.  With pretty much the whole movie taking place in Anne’s apartment, we’re able to absorb the general layout, but the movie asks you to keep a sharp eye out as to what changes within that layout. 

Another aspect of the film that Zeller uses to help us understand Anthony’s frame of mind is the effective editing from Yorgos Lamprinos that implores you to focus on what’s occurring in Anthony’s head as his distortions unfold on screen.  The editing never seems disjointed when transitioning between different versions of characters and altered settings, but rather flows seamlessly and keeps us invested in Anthony’s ever-changing perspective as it becomes harder for him to maintain his memory.

For this to be Zeller’s directorial debut suggests that he has as firm of a grasp on cinematic storytelling as he does with storytelling on a stage.  His keen ability to visualize such a distressing scenario shows an abundance of potential in his burgeoning film career.  What Zeller shows in “The Father” is something you would be fortunate not to experience in real life, but as something that has the power to move you, it’s something you shouldn’t miss.

Grade: A