peteg's blog - noise - movies - 2022 11 23 TheFather

The Father (2021)

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This one has been on the pile for a year or two. Frenchman Florian Zeller adapted his stage play (Oscared) and directed. It's a wonderfully disorienting, acausal take on dementia. Anthony Hopkins (Oscared) plays the father in mental decline to Olivia Colman's dutiful daughter. Her various paramours become unimpressed by the living arrangements. There's a fair bit of interiority, some decent acting and a general air of bemusement. I'd say the arc is unsurprising, and while many themes are touched upon it doesn't rise above a shallow character study (somewhat in extremis). #130 in the IMDB top-250.

Dana Stevens: I would've liked to see what Frank Langella made of the lead role. Jeannette Catsoulis. Just now, Natalia Winkelman says that the souflé did not rise the second time around.