Keswick Film Festival

Synopsis

Another film made for Keswick? A great British Drama starring Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Coleman; how good can it get?

A film written by the director from his own stage play, especially for Anthony Hopkins who plays the Father; maybe no surprise then that Anthony Hopkins has had amazing reviews and has become the oldest winner of an Oscar for Best Actor. "The Father is an immensely powerful film about dementia starring Sir Anthony Hopkins...he is absolutely remarkable here. I read the screenplay... and what he brings to the words on the page is beyond and beyond and beyond. Hopkins has played King Lear (twice) but this is his real King Lear" – Deborah Ross, Spectator. Probably no surprise either, but an extra treat, is that we are also given a great performance from Olivia Colman who plays his daughter.

Anthony is suffering from Alzheimer's and his world is falling apart around him as he forgets more and more. The film takes us inside HIS mind more than those around him so we can see how hard it can be. Deborah Ross goes on to say "We experience his confusion as if it were our own. Cut to the next scene and the kitchen in the flat is different, or chairs from the doctor’s office are stacked in the hall. What’s going on here? he is asking himself, and we are asking the same. Is this even his flat, as he seems to believe, or has he moved in with Anne and her partner, Paul (Rufus Sewell)? He is starting to fail to recognise people. Why is Anne no longer Anne and now being played by Olivia Williams and why is Paul now being played by Mark Gatiss?"