The Father
Good thing that Dr. Kleinman and I saw this film separately. This is not a movie that will inspire 74 year-old men!
Nominated for six Academy Awards, the film deals with an aging father, played by the 83 year-old Anthony Hopkins, who is battling dementia. Hopkins, nominated for Best Actor, is overpowered by this affliction from the beginning of the film.
Living with his daughter, played by Olivia Colman, everyone knows of his mental condition but him. Ms. Colman gives a shattering performance that could very well land her an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
Colman fights away tears as she watches her father forget everything in his past. As he alienates caregivers who are trying to simply help, she knows that a care facility is on the horizon.
One of those home nursing assistants is played by the talented and largely overlooked Imogen Poots. Aside from her acting skill, I have always loved her name, so hunt her down in the engaging but horribly nasty Green Room (2015).
This inventive film, barely 1½ hours long, will likely leave you repeatedly thinking, “Good God, don’t let this happen to me.” In one of the few moments that Hopkins touches on reality, he cries as he tells a medical counselor that he feels like an aging tree that has lost all of its branches and leaves.
How do you deal with a parent who not only forgets your name but believes that your dead sister is still alive? Unless you are fighting a severe state of depression, see this film to answer that question.
