Stop at this instant! Anthony can manage on his own

★★★ 1/2 out of ★★★★

The Father (2021)

Runtime: 97 minutes

MPAA: Rated PG-13 for some strong language, and thematic material.

The Father is undoubtedly well-acted, well-crafted and densely packed with raw emotions, with the amazing performances from the two lead actors, Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman, and seems to work without a proper narrative. I myself got very confused watching Hopkins' character realize he was in somebody else's flat and then it is revealed he is in his flat after all, or how each scene transcends into eternal madness, ending up in a hospital, with characters that change names and appearances as if they were in a spinning lottery wheel. I would have appreciated if the movie made clear which point of view it was presenting or sticking to one point of view.

Other than Hopkins and Colman the other characters just revolve and are here to confuse Anthony (that's the name of his character) and the viewer more. This confusion was made on purpose, to depict a person suffering from dementia and how his surroundings and his 'fabric of reality' start to fade around him. We watch as the most sophisticated phrases like 'manage on my own' is repeated countless times, and how the plot sequences start to repeat later on in the movie, and mostly feel straight up from a Quentin Tarantino non-linear narrative.

Here's one example: Anthony meets a caretaker that reminds him of his daughter, Lucy, whom he has no idea has passed, and the next day the caretaker takes care of him. A painting he has had for a very long time has gone. The following day, it is revealed that he had the meeting with the caretaker a day ago and the caretaker looks like the daughter he couldn't recognize about an hour ago when I first started watching it.

Plot aside, I like how Anthony and Anne are characters that feel like actual human beings, one with emotion, feelings like grief, one that we can at least sympathize with and they make their intentions clear, through their actions. Anthony is just an 80-plus year old man who insists he can manage on his own. His daughter, on the other hand, thinks otherwise as he keeps on forgetting things and mixing imagination with reality, and suggests a caretaker.

A side villain who is almost as convincing pops up and is in disapproval for Anne to take care of her father as he is a 'nuisance' and demands her to send him to an institution, which actually happens at the end of the movie. Is this man her husband? Has she met someone else? Or is she already divorced?

By the end of the movie, Anthony is already unable to bear his everchanging circumstances and cries for his mommy, which provokes pity, sadness and sympathy to the viewer. It's agonizing and haunting. 

A must for a re-watch.

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