The Father (2020)

Directed by: Florian Zeller | 97 minutes | drama | Actors: Olivia Colman, Anthony Hopkins, Mark Gatiss, Olivia Willliams, Imogen Poots, Rufus Sewell, Ayesha Dharker, Roman Zeller

Florian Zeller was named one of the most fascinating playwrights of our time by The Guardian in 2016. In 2004 he won the French literature prize for his book ‘The Fascination of Evil’. His directorial debut, ‘The Father’, which he wrote as a play in 2012 (La Père), won two Oscars in 2021 for Best Actor (Anthony Hopkins) and Best Adapted Screenplay. The script that Florian wrote with screenwriter Christopher Hampton is inspired by Florian’s grandmother and is a painful reality that we all hope to avoid, even though we have no control over it.

We take linear thinking for granted. Cause and effect are neatly ordered and the world is an understandable whole. But what if this order is disrupted? What if the daily affairs, the trivial obvious things suddenly become strange? You are looking for an anchor, a fixed point, in a world that has lost its logic. Coherence is lost and moments are like loose grains of sand. Time is the handhold in a world that is slowly falling apart. What was supposed to happen has already happened. You know this. And yet you hear it for the first time. Realities merge and metamorphose into other unrecognizable forms. Strangers pretend to be acquaintances, or is it the other way around? Environments look so familiar, and yet they are just not the same as before.

‘The Father’ is a film about this process. Anthony (Anthony Hopkins) lives in a flat in London. His daughter, Anne (Olivia Colman), visits him regularly, but she becomes increasingly concerned about him. She wants to get her own life back on track, but that is difficult with a father who makes her feel guilty. However, she herself sees that he is not well. Hard decisions have to be made. Also, the environment is not as understanding as would be expected. Sometimes he even abuses it. Depending on who is asked.

For Florian Zeller, there was only one person worthy of Anthony’s portrayal: Anthony Hopkins. It is no coincidence that the protagonist’s name is Anthony. He was therefore extremely happy when Anthony Hopkins agreed to play the part. And he does this superbly. He drags the viewer along with sometimes only the eyes, the facial expressions and the silences. With a twitch of the chin, a narrowing look or a well-placed sigh, he communicates a world of information that touches us. Olivia Colman rivals Anthony Hopkins’ genius as she navigates the uncertain waters of their interaction and is the perfect inhale of Anthony’s exhale. Although the roles of Mark Gatiss (‘The Favourite’, ‘Sherlock’), Olivia Williams (‘Victoria and Abdul’), Imogen Poots (‘Green Room’) and Rufus Sewell (‘Dark City’, ‘The Illusionist’) are more are intended as sounding boards for the protagonists, they are by no means superfluous. They form a balanced whole that conveys the core message of the film like a knife stab.

With ‘The Father’ Florian Zeller and Christopher Hampton have created a masterpiece by taking the viewer into a facet of life unknown to many. Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman are like Virgilius who gives Dante a tour of hell that allows the viewer a glimpse into the dark caverns of human existence. For many, the film is a mirror and a harbinger of things that may be to come and prompts them to think about one’s own life. About who we are now and how relative everything really is.