The Father

This was a good movie. However, I must admit that I didn't understand it all and was very confused several times during the movie. But, I think, this was supposed to happen. 

The movie is about a father, as you can probably guess from the name of the movie. The father has dementia and a daughter (as it seems). If you know what dementia is about, then you can guess that the father keeps forgetting things and often lives in a past reality (or perhaps unreality). This part was what was particularly confusing to me, and I believe, to the audience in general. You see certain things happening, there is what the father is saying, and what his daughter is saying. Since you know the father (Anthony Hopkins) has dementia, you first think that the daughter is right (and telling things that are true) and the father should be the one who speaks nonsense sometimes. 

Surprise! After a while, you start questioning---at least I did. You question the reality of the daughter. At times, the father confuses the caregiver for his daughter. At least, that's first what you think. Then, the father makes such statements that you start thinking "well, maybe he was right and the daughter was gaslighting him". Who knows? I still don't know. Nevertheless, I highly enjoyed the movie because I think this confusion was intentional. I think, the film makers wanted to leave the audience with such a complicated state of mind to make them get close to feeling what dementia is like. It was a success. I feel that I did get one step closer to understanding the mind of dementia. At the end of the movie, I still was not certain what was real and what was unreal. So, if you watch the movie and understand everything, please enlighten me! 

The director's cut was important to presenting the layers of a mind with dementia and I think the director of this movie did a very good job on that. 

When it comes to the actors and actresses, the performances were again spectacular. 

Anthony Hopkins, well, he is Anthony Hopkins, so that needs no comment. We knew his performance was going to be great and it is. 

Olivia Colman. I first knew her from the series Broadchurch (which is a really good show by the way, you should watch---it stars David Tennant and it is a detective story and a psychological drama, it is quite intense). After her role in Broadchurch, I started liking her. Then I saw her in a movie called The Lost Daughter which is again a really good movie. I know that she is also in The Crown but I haven't seen The Crown yet---it is way too popular these days, maybe I will get to it in a few years. It is always a pleasant experience to watch her performance and, good news, she will be in the Marvel television series The Secret Invasion (that is, good news, if you like MCU productions and Olivia Colman). I do follow Marvel productions and knowing that she will be in this series makes me more expectant of the series. Also, if you don't know, David Tennant was the 10th doctor in the British series Doctor Who. He is a great actor whom I follow the works of (mostly). If you like podcasts, he does a podcast called David Tennant Does A Podcast for which he took Olivia Colman as his guest for the first episode. It was a quite enjoyable (very British accent-heavy) conversation they had. 

Mark Gatiss. Well, I know him from his roles in both Sherlock and Doctor Who. He was also involved with the writing of some of the episodes of Doctor Who's latest seasons---I don't think he did such a great job but of course it is hard to be better than Steven Moffat. Mark Gatiss is a good actor (and also British) but he is not as great as David Tennant or Olivia Colman in my eyes (or heart). Still, it was nice to see him in this movie.

Watching this movie, even as a (relatively) young person, made me think of the upcoming old age times I have ahead of me. As I said, the movie is quite thought provoking. Perhaps, if I watched this movie in an older age, I would be watching it mostly with horror, who knows?

I must say, there is a ton of movies/series or books on dementia or Alzheimer's, but I think this one sticks out as one of the best so far (among the movie ones). I don't know you, but I enjoy watching movies about people with dementia as they can be mind-bending which is something I often look for in a movie.

In the end, I am quite glad I have seen this movie. They are actually making a prequel to this movie, called The Son, starring Hugh Jackman. I definitely plan to watch this prequel. Will I write a review about it, too? Only time will tell.

I give 9/10.

P.S. This is the 2020 film The Father, not any other, but you could probably make that up by yourself from the list of actors.