12
Local News for a Global Village | www.VoiceSB.com
Florian Zeller’s The Father
W
By Sigrid Toye, Special to VOICE
HAT MOVIE BUFF DOESN’T APPRECIATE the enormous talent of Welsh actor (Sir) Anthony Hopkins? Once again, he delivers yet another unforgettable performance as The Father, in the film of the same name. Who could forget the characters Hopkins has created from his diverse – and classically trained – emotional palette: Stevens, the inhibited butler in The Remains of the Day, Dr. Hannibal Lecter, the flesh noshing intellectual in The Silence of the Lambs (winning the Academy Award for Best Actor), and more recently as the elusive creator Dr. Robert Ford in the My mother thought popular HBO series, people were stealing Westworld, and the dogmatic German from her. Such loneliness Pope Benedict in and anger came with The Two Popes. From that thought…. It was Shakespeare’s plays to today’s various simply awful witness. screens, he brings – Sir Anthony Hopkins himself to every role he plays. The Father, now streaming on Netflix, is a deeply personal endeavor for all involved, especially for the playwright and director, Florian Zeller. Originally written as a play, an homage to his parent who suffered from dementia, it came to the big screen with the help of screenwriter Christopher Hampton. As the father, Hopkins’ excellent supporting cast includes Olivia Colman (The Crown) as his daughter Anne, assisted by anonymous characters known as The Man and The Woman (Mark Gates and Olivia Williams), and Laura (Imogen Poots), a caregiver. This shape shifting psychologically oriented drama about dementia starts off inauspiciously with an exasperated daughter
sparring with her retired father who needs help to live on his own. At 80, Anthony, mischievous, intelligent, and manipulative by nature, is living defiantly alone in his upscale flat in London rejecting each of the care givers that his daughter introduces. Truly caring and loving, Anne is especially concerned because she’ll soon be unable to continue her daily visits to care for him with her father’s grip on reality slowly slipping away. The ebb and flow of his memory, how much of his own identity and past he can hold on to despite his deteriorating condition, upends his world and that of the viewer as the film progresses. By revealing Anthony’s mental quagmire in dramatic changes that undermine the comfortable life to which he has become accustomed, the father, along with the viewing audience find themselves confused and helpless in a continually shifting landscape that Olivia Colman and Sir Anthony Hopkins in The Father completely unravels any sense of place and of self. In telling his story, the director Florian Zeller, not With his character becoming increasingly vicious and spiteful only emerges the audience in the experience of the protagonist, to his daughter, Hopkins was pained by Colman’s character Anne but also infuses them with the uncertainty and loss felt by both desperately trying to reach him. father and daughter, helpless to stop the progress of the disease. “I could see the pleading in her eyes, the need to reach him How Anne copes as she grieves the loss of her father while he still but being incapable of doing so... and I could feel it,” Hopkins lives, lovingly embraces real life that is both heart-breaking and recalled. uncompromisingly poignant. This study of dementia, much like Colman noted that her process includes full emotional the fictional tale of mathematician John Forbes Nash’s delusional emersion in her roles, although she experiences those feelings as reality in Ron Howard’s film A Beautiful Mind, places the viewer cathartic, often therapeutic. at the emotional center of Anthony’s experience. “I can’t live in that place, so I never carry these emotions with In a Q&A conducted after viewing the film, actors Hopkins me once once I’ve experienced them,” she explained. and Colman along with director Zeller had an opportunity to Hopkins, on the other hand, seems to add a character’s share stories of dementia. feelings to his rich palette of emotional colors. “It was because of my experience with my parent that I Both Hopkins and Colman dismissed the need for wrote the original play,” Zeller stated. “The father in the film is extensive rehearsals. “It’s all in the script,” noted Hopkins. Both constantly looking at his watch, referring to it, or thinking it had acknowledged that research and study beforehand allows an been stolen – a metaphor for time passing along with some kind actor to freely play his or her character in real time and create an of stability in this life.” experience that speaks to truths inherent in human life. Hopkins whose parents also suffered from dementia, Truths about love, caring, and helplessness are indeed made remembers his mother in the last days of her life. “My mother real in the telling of The Father’s story. thought people were stealing from her. Such loneliness and anger came with that thought…. It was simply awful witness.” Courtesy Photo
Movie Review
December 25, 2020
Santa BarBara’S Great neiGhBorhood Spot! Now OPEN for Take-out and Delivery
Open Tuesday-Sunday 5pm-8pm (until 8:30 Fri/Sat )
20% off
all delivery orders through restaurant connection with code LK20
• Visit our website www.littlekitchensb.com • Hit delivery option • Use the code for a discount! (Valid through 12/31)
Wishing you a Magical Holiday Season – The Hoidal Family
www.TrulyGreatHomes.com delicious, healthy food at a price you can afford! www.littlekitchen.com
17 W ORTEGA ST. | LITTLEKITCHENSB.COM | 805.770.2299
805.689.6808 CA DRE #01904812