AFI Fest 2020: The Father
AFIThough there were a multitude of films premiering at the virtual 2020 AFI Fest, the hardest ticket to get was one that premiered at Sundance back in January: Florian Zeller’s directorial debut The Father. And for good reason. It’s one of the best films of the year with an audacious balancing act that should not work as well as it does.
The Father stars Sir Anthony Hopkins as Anthony, an elderly man who is dealing with significant dementia as his dutiful daughter, Anne (Olivia Colman) tries to help him adjust to major life changes for them both. What those changes are elude both Anthony and the audience constantly as the very fabric of his world is continually shifting in his mind. Maybe that’s saying too much? It’s difficult to discuss this film in any major way because everything is a spoiler but, at the same time, nothing is.
The film, based on Zeller’s play Le Père, follows Anthony’s perceptions of the unfolding events and, due to his memory loss, the narrative changes constantly. The details of the overarching plot tend to shift. Scene to scene, the characters have different motivations, backstories and even actors. Facts presented as truth become fiction, while new information is referenced as though it was already known. Whenever it feels like the full story has been revealed, there’s another twist to uncover.
It begins with Colman’s Anne visiting Anthony to find him a new housekeeper after he erroneously accused the last one of theft, causing her to quit. Anne reveals she’s moving to Paris and that he will need someone because he can no longer live alone. Moments later, a man (Mark Gattis) appears, claiming to be Anne’s husband and that Anne is gone. He explains that this is actually his home, not Anthony’s. Seconds after that, Anne returns home, but played now by Olivia Williams. The confusion never lets up from there.
Right off the bat, the ‘Best Actor’ Oscar is Hopkins’ to lose. This an incredibly meaty part, but one that easily could have fallen into parody without a complete mastery of the character, which Hopkins manages to do. Anthony’s whole demeanour changes on a dime from a cheery, if confused, elderly man to an angry, erratic force to be reckoned with. The shifts in disposition add an additional layer of uncertainty to the proceedings and is, bar none, his best performance since The Silence of the Lambs (and that comes from an ardent fan of last year’s The Two Popes).
In fact, the entire cast, notably Colman and Williams, truly bring their A-games to performances that, at first glance, seem to be totally overshadowed by Hopkins’ commanding presence. Though they are the ones often correcting Anthony and explaining the various twists, they broach the topics with a consistently calm and rational tone that is needed for viewers to latch onto The Father’s ever-changing aspects. Likewise, Zeller’s steady hand at the directing wheel keeps the film focused, especially in the latter half, as the narrative purposefully begins to spin out of control.
The Father will likely be compared to another mind-bending movie from 2020, Charlie Kaufman’s love-it-or-hate-it I’m Thinking of Ending Things. But as obtuse and arthouse as that film is, The Father is streamlined and audience friendly. Its focus on the performances and relatively simple base narrative make it far more approachable. A full understanding of all the film’s ins-and-outs is not required to appreciate it as a whole. To quote the most annoying person you follow on Twitter, ‘Don’t try to understand it, just feel it.
