Butler's Cinema Scene

Anthony Hopkins

“THE FATHER” My rating: B (In theaters)

97 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

Films about Alzheimer’s usually assume an outsider’s point of view, that of a family member or caregiver who must watch in dismay as a loved one goes through the downward spiral of forgetfulness, cognitive dissolution and physical and mental incapacity.

Florian Zeller’s “The Father,” on the other hand, attempts nothing less than to recreate  encroaching dementia as it is experienced by the patient. It’s an insider’s approach.

The film is less a conventional narrative than a series of disorienting scenes that force the audience — like the film’s title character — to ask what is real and what a delusion.

Adapted by Christopher Hampton from Zeller’s stage play, “The Father” relies on a narrative gimmick, yet Anthony Hopkins’ Oscar-nominated lead performance is so compelling — by turns infuriating, puzzling and pathetic — that it bouys the entire production.

Things start out more or less conventionally.  Anne (Olivia Colman, also an Oscar nominee) has come to the spacious London flat of her father Anthony (Hopkins) to discuss his living situation.  The old man has chased off his third visiting nurse, accusing her of theft; Anne (a divorcee) is distraught  as this screws up her plans to move to Paris with her new boyfriend. Who’s going to be there for Dad?

Anthony wants nothing to do with caregivers. He swears by self-sufficiency and resents the intrusion of strangers into his neatly circumscribed world.

Listening to him you want to agree. Anthony is eloquent and even witty (albeit often scathingly critical, his jabs at poor Anne suggest not just indifference but overt cruelty); physically he seems perfectly okay. Yeah, he’s self-centered and often hears only what he wants to hear.  You can say the same about lots of  younger people.

Anthony can be a charmer. Look at the show he puts on for Laura (Imogen Poots), a young woman being interviewed by Anne as a replacement for the latest nurse to bail.  For this attractive visitor Anthony is bright-eyed and amusing, claiming to have been a professional tap dancer (he was an engineer) and even doing a soft-shoe across the living room rug.

Imogen Poots, Olivia Colman, Anthony Hopkins

And then the film chucks a ringer.  Anthony discovers in the  apartment a stranger (Mark Gatiss) who claims to be his son-in-law. Furthermore, he’s told that this isn’t his apartment, but that of Anne and her husband. Anthony is the interloper here.

And when Anne returns from a shopping trip, she’s someone (Olivia Williams) Anthony doesn’t recognize.

In a subsequent scene Anne is again played by Colman; in this sequence she is not a divorcee but is living with her husband Paul (Rufus Sewell), who is getting a bit touchy about having his temperamental and bombastic father-in-law constantly underfoot.

At a certain point the viewer may wonder if Anthony isn’t the victim of some sort of gaslighting conspiracy. Maybe these people are playing mind tricks on him. Do they want his money? His apartment?

The truth of Anthony’s situation will eventually be sorted out — at least I think we can believe the explanation offered — and it’s pretty much what you’d expect.

Reviews of stage productions of “The Father” describe it as a black comedy.  That’s not the impression left by the film. Possibly in a theatrical setting cast members have a tendency to “go big”; here the players embrace realism. There are a few moments of whimsey, but they are undercut by a growing sense of dread and disorientation.

In his feature directing debut Zeller does a solid job of establishing an atmosphere of creeping uncertainty punctuated by moments of anger and amusement.

As a dramatic work  “The Father” is far from perfect, yet there is no denying the fascinating power of Hopkins’ performance. It’s practically Lear-ish in its emotional/intellectual twists and turns as a once-incisive mind wanders off the rails.

| Robert W. Butler