The Father Review: Disorienting Yet Emotional!

Directed by Florian Zeller, The Father, the Best Picture nominee at the 93rd Academy Awards starring Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman in the lead roles, tells the story of Anthony, an elderly person, with dementia and we learn about his life through his perspective.

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First of all, this film was disorienting and confusing. One can say that it was a big puzzle, but the problem was that audiences don’t even know what’s real and what’s not. The first half was especially hecka confusing, and the second half filled in some of the pieces.

This disorienting and nonlinear storytelling was meant to make us see what Anthony Hopkins’ character saw, and the director was good at that aspect. This showed the biggest theme of the movie, which was how sad and anxious life could be for people with dementia. With how sad the story turned out, the story helped me to have a glimpse at the life of many elder people with dementia.

And, of course, the story wouldn’t be convincing and powerful without Anthony Hopkins’ phenomenal performance as the father. I saw an old man with dementia who tried to maintain his sanity but slowly lost it. As creepy as Hopkins was in Silence of the Lambs, where he was very sad and made us felt for him.

Another good performance was from Olivia Colman, who played the daughter. We saw the pain that she went through dealing with the situation, and I again felt bad for her character. This shows another important theme about the effect of the condition on the loved ones around the patient.

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Overall, The Father maintains a purposefully disorganized plot that showed the negative effect of dementia.

Rating – 4/5 | Grade – A

Review by Nguyen Dang
Follow Dang on IG – @in_nguyen_do