The Father (2020) Review
By: Ismail El-Sobky
The unreliable narrator narrative can feel unearned or unnecessary in many films where it feels like the film has no real use for it. Luckily, Florian Zeller’s The Father is not a case of that, instead it is done in an incredibly respectful way. It is a family drama about an old man (Sir Anthony Hopkins) suffering from dementia and we see the events of the film from his perspective.
The film’s use of the unreliable narrator is what makes this film interesting and like Memento or Shutter Island, telling the story objectively wouldn’t make for an interesting story or film. The film deals with dementia, a very unfortunate and common syndrome that affects many elderly people, and because of that the story employs an interesting structure that I can only compare to Memento, but it isn’t exactly like that either. The structure of the story puts you in the shoes of the man suffering from dementia and lets you perceive things the way he does. So scenes may be repeated but at different times of the day, different actors will switch roles with other actors depending on the scene to add to the confusion of the sufferer. It just does it in a way that I have never seen done before, not even like Memento as Memento keeps the characters the same, we just have to learn more from them by going backwards in time. Obviously the source material here deals with sensitive subjects, but the film really does deal with it in the most delicate, honest, respectful and truthful way that really does deal with reality of the situation, the one who has dementia is suffering in one way, and the people around them suffer in another way. As somebody who knew a family member with dementia, there is so much truth and accuracy in the way the interactions between the sufferer and the surrounding people is portrayed, so the emotions hit home for me because of that.
Now, while the film does do a great job at doing something very faithful and new, however as a film that faithfulness can come in the way of comprehension oftentimes. The issue with the way the story is structured, it doesn’t give the film a proper flow within the overall narrative. So while the individual scenes are great and engaging, the story doesn’t feel cohesive. Part of that is intentional, to get you in that mindset of someone suffering from dementia, but it oftentimes comes to the disadvantage of the overall film, leading to a case of where the parts are greater than the whole. It doesn’t completely ruin the film, but it just makes the viewing experience a bit unsatisfactory. Also the film leaves some important threads unresolved, which again made me a bit dissatisfied.
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I was surprised to find out that this film was Zeller’s directorial debut as it is a really well executed film. He controls and paces each scene to almost perfection every time, and uses the dementia as a way to really play around and take risks with the way scenes look, are acted etc. Zeller’s compositions for each shot are very satisfying to look at. The way he switches actors depending on the scene is genius and adds to the confusion but more importantly to the faithfulness. He finds the truth in the story and brings it out visually everywhere.
The film’s masterful cinematography and editing are not merely top-notch from a technical standpoint, they are fundamental to the very storytelling itself, eloquently pulling us into the protagonist’s disintegrating reality. The cinematography often employs confined, shifting frames and carefully mirrored layouts in the apartment that suddenly change between scenes, manifesting his confusion and making the audience question what is real. This is seamlessly woven together with the editing, which uses jarring, disjointed cuts and non-linear transitions. We are never given a stable footing. We experience his sudden time jumps, the inexplicable appearance and disappearance of people, and the deep-seated terror that comes with it. Rather than just showing us a man with dementia, these techniques force us to feel his profound and heartbreaking disorientation, making his struggle overwhelmingly palpable and sympathetic.
It would be a punishable crime to talk about the film without bringing up the incredible acting on display. Sir Anthony Hopkins is a true treasure, and he proves it every time he is on screen. His performance was beyond spectacular once again. He delivered one of the greatest performances in the history of screen acting. As the father, he is at times charming or unlikable, but he is also incredibly sympathetic and becomes greatly emotional, delivering a tear-jerker of a performance by the end. Even if the film was awful, which it is not, it would be absolutely worth it to sit through it over and over just to see that performance again, it is that good. Olivia Colman is also amazing. It’s tough for any actor to keep up with Hopkins, yet Colman manages to and she brings such a lovable honest charm to her character that is devoid of cynicism but feels pity and burden for her father’s situation, just as people in this situation generally are. Additionally Imogen Poots, Rufus Sewell, Olivia Williams and Mark Gatiss all deliver worthy supporting performances.
Now as I said before, I do have issues with the flow of the narrative of the film, and while it is something that hinders the film a bit for me, I also am able to recognise that this film has so much merit in its acting, directing, cinematography, editing and even writing and this is an important film. It’s important as it allows most people to understand and sympathise with many of the elderly people in our lives who cannot control the situations they are in and helps bridge the gap in people’s understanding. Recommended viewing for all people as it is an important film with one of the greatest performances in film history.
Score: 7.4/10
