Movie Man Darian Watching All Night Long

The Father 

This film is heartbreakingly genius! Anthony Hopkins delivers one of his finest performances of his entire career in this film about a man suffering from crippling Dementia. The film takes on the task of his illness head on in a way that I have never seen tackled by any film that has come before it. As there have been films like Still Alice which also was about Dementia and her descent into illness and that film is outstanding in its own right with a great leading performance by Julianne Moore. Now how the Father tackles Dementia is done in such a way I was constantly shocked and I mean that in the greatest way possible. As it is able to make the viewer itself confused, questioning what is real or in his head and they make you feel that sense of questioning yourself of what your witnessing is even happening. So you are  always in this state of sadness with Hopkins. It takes a very simple and straight forward story and really digs deep into the complexity and heartbreaking realism of the disease that will break your heart but also have you impressed by the sheer raw talent of Anthony Hopkins’s performance at the centre of this film. 

Firstly, The film as I touched upon already has a very different style in its ability to tackle the disease throughout this film. By constantly conflicting the audience and their perception of what is real and what is just in his head and now some people may say that can just come across as sloppy storytelling which it is not. It takes the viewer head on into the headspace of Hopkin’s character and makes you feel how his brain would be 24/7 of living with dementia and feeling that emotional straining feel on the body and soul and its heartbreaking to witness as you see the sheer heartache this man is feeling day to day and by immersing the audience in his head to feel how he feels gives the audience not only a better perception of what he’s going through but makes me more connected to the character and to the performance at hand. A similar approach at such an immersive experience was also done earlier this year with the Sound Of Metal and here the Father does exactly that and has these amazingly well edited and well shot scenes where scenes may overlap twice and repeat itself and its because we are always in this state of confusion with him and you are as confused as he is giving you a more raw and real experience then if they were just to let him express the performance which he does and greatly I may add. But by adding that extra element of immersing the audience into what is happening in his head made it so more interesting and got me absolutely engaged in every frame of the film. 

Secondly, The performance by Anthony Hopkins is truly incredible! He is a incredibly underrated actor I find even tho he is universally well known for his award winning turn in the brilliant Silence Of The Lambs many people just see him as Hannibal Lector and that’s it a lot of people sadly overlook a lot of his genius works. He was just this year nominated for his work on the Two Popes and here once again delivers another splendid performance that I would up in one of the best performances he has ever given. As he can be charming and have this glint in his eye and then show scary raw emotion with anger in his voice and then have tears flow down his face in such sadness your heart breaks for him it is a tour de force performance that will give you chills. Then you have the amazing work of Olivia Colman who gives a tremendous performance as well as she plays the daughter of Hopkins in the film and is constantly having to fight to keep it together for her father and not let all the emotional stress break her down. It is quite powerful and Colman demands the screen in raw emotional vulnerability that is a truly spectacular performance that shouldn’t be overlooked. Everyone else all give great performances but it is the tour de force performance by Hopkins that will have you in tears and the emotionally charged Colman that keep you engaged all the way through. 

Lastly, This film tackles Dementia head on in the most realistic and heartbreaking executions ever shown onscreen ever. Presented on top with truly electric performances and a performance by Anthony Hopkins that will blow you away and break your heart all at once. It is acted brilliantly, amazingly directed and emotionally realistic to the disease it is discussing in a very upfront and real way that will have you in tears but wanting to talk about it the moment it is over. 

When a father who is suffering from Dementia starts getting worse by the hours his daughter results to getting him a nurse to look after him

Rated PG - 13 : Some Strong Language|Thematic Material

Anthony Hopkins : Hopkins delivers a revolutionary performance! This man has given some of the greatest onscreen performances in cinema history from Silence Of The Lambs, The Elephant Man and Nixon to now The Father. Anthony Hopkins plays a man with crippling Dementia and we see it eating away at him both psychically and emotionally and its at times hard to watch because it is so utterly heartbreaking. He plays Anthony the character so honestly and never comes across as mockery or stereotype in any sense of the word. As he is playing someone with Dementia and Hopkins makes sure to play the character as brutally truthful as he can and he simply does. As we see so many layers and sides to him as the film progresses in the first fifteen minutes we see his rage and anger he can unleash on anyone within a ten mile radius and how he can be quiet and collected and then burst into a state of sheer anger and make it the all convincing in a way that is scary but also compelling as Hopkins has a very commanding voice that when he yells the hairs on your arm stand up. He then can be so charming with this sparkle in his eye and charm the pants off anyone who enters the room with his amazing charismatic energy that will make it damn near impossible to take your eyes off of him. Then when he is confused and in a state of emotional stress you see the sadness wash over him sometimes there is no dialogue to be said just the sheer emotion on his face is enough to understand how he is feeling.  Then when he does speak and you hear the crack in his voice as the tears stream down his face your heart goes out to him. Their is so many great scenes in this film where he shines so bright on the screen as the emotion he taps into feels so genuine raw and real and its so engaging to watch as Hopkins goes into some of the most heartbreaking depths he has ever taped into in his entire career resulting in one of his most explosively captivating performances of his career showing the truly heart shattering impact of how dementia can destroy a person emotionally and psychically and its brought to brutal truth by Hopkins in one of the best performances of his entire career. 

Olivia Colman : Coleman is one of my favourite actresses working today! She blew me away two years ago with her amazing performance in the Favourite which was a performance that introduced a lot of people to her for the first time which I thought was great. Now she also has found great success on the small screen in the Netflix series the Crown. Now her work in the Father is extraordinary and I will tell you why. She plays this woman who is the daughter of Hopkin’s character and takes care of him every single day. She takes a lot of emotionally charged comments from her Father that would make the toughest person want to cry and she holds it together and tries to keep a smile on her face and not to break. Their  does come a moment where she drops a mug and it shatters into pieces and we see her scrap it up as she then finally breaks down into a flood of tears and finally unleashes the sadness she has been holding back for so long in a incredibly heartbreaking moment in the film that comes across so raw and emotionally sincere. She is constantly stressing over her fathers state of mind as anyone would be and she is always trying to give him the best even though he may at Times may not be the most grateful person in the world. She tries and he does see that and Colman brings this emotional sadness to her she carries throughout the film as I mentioned and then slowly starts to crack piece by piece until she breaks down in tears and its powerful and Colman is so captivating in this film. Even though it is a supporting turn for the scenes she does have she makes the most of it by her incredible onscreen presence. In a performance that will break your heart Colman is revaluation in this film. 

Florian Zeller : Florian Gives a beautifully heartbreaking first film! I had to look up what other films this man has done and I found out this is his first ever directed film that is crazy to me. He brought such a vulnerability and real look to this film that effects you. He takes on the task of tackling one of the most emotionally haunting diseases Dementia and showing the truth in it and how it effects people around the world. He brings great performances out of his actors and a truly magnetic one out of Hopkins and Colman. While giving a first hand account of the utter confusion and truly heartbreaking life people deal with day to day by immersing the audience in that headspace throughout the film. That sort of approach visually I have never seen before and the way he went about it was amazing as I said earlier scenes would overlap some things wouldn’t make sense sometimes but that was all intentional though as we see the emotional toll it takes on Anthony first hand and it really makes us connect more with the film and its character by doing so that way. Florian explores the human condition to such a real extent you are feeling what they are seeing and hearing in their head and its a genius approach and execution done by Florian and I cannot see what he does next he did an outstanding job with his work on this film.