The Father (2020 film)

A man struggles with aging as his daughter moves into his flat with him.

• Anthony Hopkins as Anthony
• Olivia Colman as Anne
• Rufus Sewell as Paul
• Imogen Poots as Laura
• Mark Gatiss as Bill
• Olivia Williams as Catherine

It was announced in May 2019 that Florian Zeller was to direct and co-write a screenplay with Christopher Hampton based on his play. Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman were cast in the film. Olivia Williams, Rufus Sewell, Imogen Poots and Mark Gatiss joined later that month, with filming beginning on 13 May.[5] Filming locations included West London Film Studios, Hayes, Hillingdon.[6][7][8]

The Father had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on 27 January 2020.[9] Prior to this, Sony Pictures Classics and Lionsgate acquired U.S. and U.K. distribution rights to the film, respectively.[10][11] It also screened at the Toronto International Film Festival on 14 September 2020[12] and at the AFI Fest in October 2020.[13]

The film is scheduled to be released in the United Kingdom on 12 March 2021,[14] delayed from an earlier release date of 8 January in response to a third-wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.[15] In the United States, the film will begin a limited release in New York City and Los Angeles on 26 February, before expanding on 12 March and then being available for on PVOD starting 26 March.[16] It was originally scheduled to be released on 18 December 2020.[17]

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 100% based on 50 reviews, with an average rating of 8.7/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "Led by stellar performances and artfully helmed by writer-director Florian Zeller, The Father presents a devastatingly empathetic portrayal of dementia."[18] At Metacritic, it has a weighted average score of 87 out of 100, based on 12 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[19]

Writing for Variety, Owen Gleiberman said "The Father does something that few movies about mental deterioration in old age have brought off in quite this way, or this fully. It places us in the mind of someone losing his mind — and it does so by revealing that mind to be a place of seemingly rational and coherent experience."[20] For The Guardian, Benjamin Lee wrote of Hopkins' performance: "It's astounding, heartbreaking work, watching him try to rationally explain to himself and those around him what he's experiencing. In some of the film's most quietly upsetting moments, his world has shifted yet again but he remains silent, knowing that any attempt to question what he's woken up to will only fall on deaf ears. Hopkins runs the full gamut from fury to outrage to upset and never once does it feel like a constructed character bit, despite our association with him as an actor with a storied career."[21]

Todd McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter wrote: "The best film about the wages of aging since Amour eight years ago, The Father takes a bracingly insightful, subtle and nuanced look at encroaching dementia and the toll it takes on those in close proximity to the afflicted. Fronted by a stupendous performance from Anthony Hopkins as a proud Englishman in denial of his condition, this penetrating work marks an outstanding directorial debut by the play's French author Florian Zeller."[22]

Writing for Indiewire, David Ehrlich said: "Zeller adapts his award-winning play of the same name with steely vision and remarkable confidence, as the writer-director makes use of the camera like he’s been standing behind one for his entire life. (...) In Zeller’s hands, what appears to be a conventional-seeming portrait of an unmoored old man as he rages against his daughter and caretaker slowly reveals itself to be the brilliant study of a mind at sea, and of the indescribable pain of watching someone drown."[23]

• The Father at IMDb