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The Father

2020

Florian Zeller

Anthony Hopkins, Olivia Colman, Imogen Poots, Rufus Sewell ...

7.7

18,587

Drama Almost 80, mischievous, caustic, and defiantly living alone, Anthony (Anthony Hopkins) rejects each and every hired caretaker that his daughter, Anne (Olivia Colman), lovingly introduces. Anne is desperate for help. She can’t make daily visits anymore, and Anthony’s grip on reality is unraveling. Given the ebb and flow of his memory, how much of his own identity and past can he cling to? Anne grieves the loss of her father as he lives ... [+]

	Author	Review
United Kingdom	Benjamin Lee The Guardian	"A brutal, trippy portrait of what it must feel like to lose your grip on reality boasts an Oscar-worthy performance (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Todd McCarthy The Hollywood Reporter	"[It] takes a bracingly insightful, subtle and nuanced look at encroaching dementia and the toll it takes on those in close proximity to the afflicted (...) Never has the invasion of memory loss been conveyed as profoundly as it is in 'The Father'."	POS
United Kingdom	Tim Grierson Screendaily	"Exceptional performances anchor Florian Zeller’s deeply moving debut (...) That narrative conceit could be a difficult hurdle, but Hopkins and Colman treat it with such naturalism that it becomes the grim reality of their characters."	POS
United States	Peter Travers ABC News	"Roaring against the dying of the light, Hopkins is monumental. He makes 'The Father' essential viewing."	POS
United States	Richard Lawson Vanity Fair	"Anthony Hopkins is unforgettable (...) There’s such rich humanity in his film that nothing outright nihilistic or torturing can take root"	POS
United States	Jeannette Catsoulis The New York Times	"[It] plays with perspective so cleverly that maintaining any kind of emotional distance is impossible."	POS
United States	K. Austin Collins Rolling Stone	"[The movie] lags under the weight of its conceit (...) But the film’s emotions have a stark, memorable sheen (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Brian Truitt USA Today	"'The Father' fascinatingly puts the viewer in the same state of distress as its main character (...) Haunting, deeply affecting (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Owen Gleiberman Variety	"[It] does something that few movies about mental deterioration in old age have brought off in quite this way, or this fully. It places us in the mind of someone losing his mind — and it does so by revealing that mind to be a place of seemingly rational and coherent experience."	POS
United States	Ann Hornaday The Washington Post	"'The Father' provides sensitive, superbly compassionate insight into many things, including the fragility of dignity, the ghost prints left by grief and love, and the abiding mysteries of consciousness itself (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	David Ehrlich 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."	POS
United Kingdom	Nick De Semlyen Empire	"A kind of horror film with a huge heart (...) Gripping and audacious (...) Hopkins is extraordinary and Zeller proves he’s a natural filmmaker, orchestrating a Wagnerian opera of emotion (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Gregory Ellwood The Playlist	"Zeller clearly can work with actors, but his insistence on chronicling the story in effectively one space (...) makes this endeavor more claustrophobic than it should be"	NEU
United States	Matt Cipolla The Film Stage	"[It's Zeller's] ability to link language with location that toys with the audience (...) [It] marks a modest and involved debut from Zeller"	POS
United States	Johnny Oleksinski New York Post	"Anthony Hopkins’ best work in years (...) With its narrative boldness, however, 'The Father' never stirs or fully satiates (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"	POS

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