Whenever I hear of someone suffering from what is curiously known as dementia or memory loss, I am at a loss for words. How can anyone understand or fathom such a cruel thing where the mind loses focus on memory to the point that you do not recognize your own family, or mistake them for other people. "The Father" focuses squarely on memory loss from the point-of-a-view of an older, 80-year-old man named Anthony (Anthony Hopkins) who cannot understand what is happening to him. Is he really losing his memory or are his family members playing a prank on him? You will wonder too, at first.
Something seems off with Anthony's memory from the beginning, or at least his understanding of a given reality. He lives in an expansive flat in London and seemingly has a daughter, Anne (Olivia Colman), who is moving to France since she found a new man in her life. This means Anthony will be alone. Or will he? Is there a caregiver that has been hired to watch after him? And why is Anthony's daughter suddenly a completely different woman (played by Olivia Williams)? Is this Anne his actual daughter? And what of the man named Paul (Mark Gatiss) reading the newspaper in the living room - he claims to live there. Is he Anna's husband? And there is yet another switcheroo when the husband is a whole different person (this time played by Rufus Sewell). These switcheroos reminded me of Luis Bunuel's "That Obscure Object of Desire" where two actresses play the same role, though it became a necessity for Bunuel rather than a narrative function.
Yet "The Father" is not a supernatural, dreamlike stunt by way of David Lynch. These people in Anthony's mind exist alright yet he has no control of how he perceives them. His mind is not playing a prank on him - it is the unfortunate fact that his mind is simply losing memory. His facts become nebulous and sometimes an incident replays itself, as when Sewell's Paul talks to Anna about placing Anthony in an institution while preparing dinner. Anthony overhears this conversation and, in some truly skillful editing, the scene replays itself from his point-of-view after Anthony just had dinner - well, except it seems dinner wasn't served yet. Deja vu, not exactly, but it plays that way and, again, he has no control on how it plays out.
The forceful, dazzlingly alive performances of Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins as Anthony and Olivia Colman as Anna expose such raw emotions that you can't help but weep for both of them. Hopkins' final scene as Anthony, who fleetingly becomes aware of how unaware he really is, is one of the most moving scenes this actor has ever performed - a scene that will stay in my heart and soul for years to come. Hopkins has given forceful, powerful performances before but "The Father" shows him at his most shatteringly human. Same with Olivia Colman who is torn and heartbroken by her father's inability to remember days let alone memories of the past, including her sister's fateful accident. Despite one odd moment where Anne imagines strangling her father, both characters define the raw intensity of a horribly unforgiving medical condition. Anthony might forget but there is a wisp of hope at the end, comparing himself to branches on trees where too many leaves have been shed. You'll shed tears.
