For a while now The Notebook has tainted any movie portrayals about dementia. That movie makes you think this horrible disease can deliver a beautiful starry eyed ending with you and your loved one. But The Father is here to remind you of the cold, hard reality of caring for someone who has dementia. By the end you realize that there is no hope for a happy ending, and that the cruel fate of those diagnosed makes death seem like a sweet salve of peace. Florian Zeller’s spectacular film pulls off this little miracle of driving home that level of desolation while still also brilliantly captivating us with his portrayal of a day in the life of someone who’s mind is slowly betraying his reality.
Anthony (the character and the actor, Hopkins) is the father here, a man living a simple life in his London flat, cared for by his daughter Anne (Olivia Colman). Through Anthony’s eyes, we learn about various other people in his little life: a caretaker named Laura (Imogen Poots), Anne’s husband Paul (Rufus Sewell), and Anthony’s nurse Catherine (Olivia Williams). Anthony’s simple life is about to be upended soon when Anne tells her father that she is going to move to Paris, which in a worse case scenario might have Anne send her ailing father to a hospice.
Zeller’s story succeeds because of how his screenplay immerses you into the mind of someone suffering from dementia. The movie sets up Anthony’s routine early: he wakes up, opens the window shade and looks outside, is forced to take some medicine, chats with Anne or Laura, inquires about his watch, listens to opera most of the day, then has dinner with Anne and possibly Paul, then goes to bed. That routine is helpful, because Zeller uses it to orient the audience, then twists it like a waking nightmare/real life horror movie. When someone has dementia, their mind warps time and memory into perpetual disorientation. Anthony will be talking to Anne in the morning, only to have her walk out the room and Laura come out of that exact same room, telling him it’s evening, a few weeks later. For Anthony, sometimes “Laura” shows up and starts talking to him, but “Laura” keeps insisting she is Anne, or Anthony will meet who he thinks is “Paul” (Mark Gatiss) only for the real Paul to show up in the kitchen what seems like seconds later. This makes The Father have the tone of a thriller, but instead, heartbreakingly, Anthony is trying to piece together his own existence. As a viewer, you will be left confused, disoriented, angry, frustrated, and scared, showing just how effectively Florian Zeller has pieced together his little powerful tragedy.
Helping elevate Zeller’s movie is his terrific cast. Anthony Hopkins brings that beautiful gravitas to his role, elevating it to something more than Oscar bait. Hopkins makes the character this man insistent on his intelligence and ability to care for himself, so any mistake he makes about where he is or who he’s talking to he either brushes off as a trifle, or lashes out to change the subject so he doesn’t have to show how scared or unmoored he’s become, meaning when he succumbs to his reality, it hits you like a sack of bricks. Equally impressive is Olivia Colman, giving Anne a selfless dignity, heroically taking care of her father while receiving nothing but harsh criticism and sometimes outright cruelty in return. You can read the complicated pain on her face, as she wants to clap back out at her dad but her empathy forces her to bury her pain and move forward, something only a talented actor like Colman can pull off so subtly. Imogen Poots, Rufus Sewell, Mark Gatiss, and Olivia Williams also do fine supporting work as well.
All praises and sympathy to all the people who have dementia taking hold of their life and the lives of their loved ones. The Father shows how soul crushing that slow death march can become for everyone involved. All I can hope is that you and your loves ones can find some peace by the end, and know that I can in some small way understand the daily heartbreak and anguish you go through to simply close the door to your room and go to bed by the end of the day.