The Father: The Oscar Winning Film Everyone Should See

In a cinematically stunning series of frames filmed with indigo blues, melancholic London light and abrupt close-ups of human emotions, French director Florian Zeller addresses the dilemma we are all faced with at one point or another: what do you do with the people you love who suffer from dementia and need more help than you can possibly give?

The Father sets the viewer up for dramatic exposition right from the opening scene. The shivering strings of Henry Purcell’s opera accompaniment, What Power Art Thou, echo middle-aged Anne’s (Olivia Colman) uneasy gait through the streets of West London to visit her father Anthony (Anthony Hopkins) who suffers from dementia. If life began the same way, with a similar sense of existential desperation, would any part of this - memory loss, mental decline and imminent death - be any easier?

Disturbing as it might be, the film paints a psychologically poignant picture of what it’s like to live with dementia from the father’s point of view and his daughter’s struggle to cope. Anthony ping-pongs between so many mixed memories, emotions and fears that neither the viewer nor him know exactly which reality is true. As the film progresses, trying to figure it out no longer matters to the plot. The story slowly moves you out of your head and into the realm of emotion. Even in this painful situation, there’s still room for human connection.

Hopkin’s remarkable performance of Anthony’s irreparable feeling of confusion and loneliness culminates in a final scene that is hard to forget. It’s no wonder he’s been awarded the 2021 Oscar for best actor.