Synopsis
A man refuses all assistance from his daughter as he ages and, as he tries to make sense of his changing circumstances, he begins to doubt his loved ones, his own mind and even the fabric of his reality.
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Cast
- Anthony HopkinsAnthony
- Olivia ColmanAnne
- Mark GatissThe Man
- Olivia WilliamsThe Woman
- Imogen PootsLaura
- Rufus SewellPaul
- Ayesha DharkerDr. Sarai
- Roman ZellerBoy
- Evie WrayLucy (uncredited)
- Brian RodgerHospital Visitor (uncredited)
Recommendations
- 100
The Hollywood Reporter
The best film about the wages of aging since Amour eight years ago, The Father takes a bracingly insightful, subtle and nuanced look at encroaching dementia and the toll it takes on those in close proximity to the afflicted. - 100
Film Threat
The Father is about the suffering of old age, the importance of connection, the sick encroaching of an affliction, and ultimately, death. It doesn’t sugarcoat things, despite its sugarcoated exterior. Like its French counterpart, Michael Haneke’s Amour, it’s not an easy watch, but it’s a necessary one, a film that examines the very essence of our humanity. - 90
Vanity Fair
The Father is an act of understanding, radical in its toughness and its generous artistry. - 90
Variety
The Father is a chamber piece, but it has the artistic verve to keep twisting the reality it shows us without becoming a stunt. - 83
The Film Stage
For a movie that follows a character’s perspective while remaining aware of his shortcomings, The Father marks a modest and involved debut from Zeller. - 83
IndieWire
The Father exists for no discernible reason other than to render an inexplicably cruel element of the human condition in a recognizable way, and to do so in a way that only good art can. - 83
The A.V. Club
Hopkins methodically strips away every quality we’ve come to expect from him—the refinement, the silver tongue, the imposing intensity he lent Lecter and Nixon and Titus—until there’s nothing left but frailty and distress. In doing so, he helps convey the full tragedy and horror of dementia: the way it can make someone almost unrecognizable to themselves and their loved ones. - 80
The Guardian
It’s a difficult, often quite brutal, viewing experience, as it needs to be given the subject matter, not only because of the fractured storytelling but because of the devastating lead performance from Hopkins.
