The Father

Small film, yet great. Within the first few minutes, The Father grabbed my attention perfectly due to its dynamic script, fast pace, and strong acting performances. Plus, I have to say that it was like an emotional rollercoaster ride that will leave you with goosebumps in the end. The spiral narrative ingeniously plays with the supporting characters and the perception of time and space. In addition, we experience its growing confusion and frustration with the main protagonist. Anthony Hopkins is at his best here. Everything he does and he feels is endlessly believable, and you forget that you are watching an actor. It was a force to be reckoned with, and it touched me like nothing else. (04/02/2021)

The unbearable lightness of acting. I remember well Hopkins's exclusive interview with Reflex, where he said that "...acting is the easiest profession in the world...". So Sir Anthony cut yet another theatrical role, the likes of which he has portrayed hundreds of in his lifetime on stages, and he still won an Oscar for it, by the way. Yeah, acting is a beautiful profession, if you know how to do it. (05/07/2021)

A depressing look into almost all of our futures, this time without robots or an atomic holocaust. We don’t even get a chemical weapons attack or a pandemic, but I found this absolutely blood-chilling. Hopkins’ one-man-show about ageing sets off on an adventure journey that you really don’t want to go on. Full of surprises, confusion, a caustic feeling that everybody has turned against you and keep on hiding your wrist watch. Perfect dialogs, precise directing, beautifully sad music. (04/12/2021)

Even if it were just a typical drama about a man with Alzheimer's played by Anthony Hopkins, I’d be content. But the filmmakers took an original approach, presenting it from the perspective of the person with the disease. At times, I found myself lost in the story, trying to make sense of the scenes — but I believe that’s exactly what the creators intended. This unique perspective made me appreciate the film even more. Plus, Anthony Hopkins’ performance is beyond brilliant. (07/27/2022)

In response to the question “are you afraid of death?”, someone once told me “no, I'm afraid of dying”. This film reminded me of that. Brilliantly written and with a fantastic performance by Hopkins, The Father is a mosaic of the decay of human memory and the loss of awareness of place, time and self. Set in a few rooms with a handful of actors, this is distressing and sad film, as if it had been written by a man who went through it himself and came back. Why watch such a film? To remind ourselves of how good we have it. (03/12/2022)