You must have seen a lot of movies on memory loss and dementia from external point of view like how it affects the people around the person. You see them wander off to unknown places, do not recognise their children etc.
However, have you ever wonder what would it feel like from the patient’s point of view. How they are uncertain about anything in their life and how they are confused when an unknown person smiles at them ( who in reality might be the son/daughter/husband/wife)?
That’s exactly what’s shown in this brilliant movie directed by Florian Zeller
Starring the one and only Sir Anthony Hopkins as Anthony the father of Anne. The movie starts with Anthony who is cribbing about how his caretaker lady is not good and he suspects she has stolen his watch. It looks like a generic banter of an elderly person with his daughter but suddenly like a magic trick, the rug is pulled out from the viewer’s feet. The daughter who he was talking to for some time is suddenly a different person. She is even contradicting what she just said, and then there is an unknown person sitting in the living room who claims to be his son-in-law when in fact his daughter has been divorced 5 years back.
That’s how we the audience realize that the father has issues with his memory. Each and every scene in this movie is connected in some way to the opening act and you are surprised every time the dots magically connects. In fact, the way these scenes are stitched together actually gives you the harrowing outlook of how a person suffering from dementia might be going around with his life when everything is unknown to him every day.
Watching Sir Anthony Hopkins act is like entering the mecca of acting. He effortlessly portraits the anger, despair, helplessness, and even selfishness of an elderly patient struggling to keep it together when his own memory keeps deceiving him.
Two particular scenes where the father breaks down are acted so well by Sir Anthony that you feel terrible in your gut and your eyes well up thinking about the fragility of human life.
The daughter played by Olivia Colman has also acted very well and you could feel the helplessness of a daughter who is trying to help her father who is drifting away from her every day.
The father is a gut-wrenching as well as fascinating movie and I have never seen anything this brilliant for a long time.
Watch it to understand the despair of elderly people and why they do things the way they do. For any aspiring actor and director, this movie is a masterclass. Do watch it.
