The Father is a grim movie about a man suffering memory loss. Florian Zeller wrote and directed a film where an aging retired engineer ( Sir Anthony Hopkins) lives with his caregiving daughter (Olivia Colman). Anthony shows he’s a difficult man who can be abrasive to the healthcare helpers that his daughter, Anne, hires to help her.
Anthony keeps misplacing his watch and accuses the help for stealing it. Anne finds the watch in a “stash” place where the paranoid Anthony hides his “valuables.” Sir Anthony Hopkins captures the disorientation, frustration, and confusion of dementia. Hopkins’s performance earned him a second Best Actor Oscar and at age 83, Hopkins became the oldest Oscar winner. The Father scored 98% from critics and 91% from the audience on Rotten Tomatoes. This is an excellent movie that will leave you pensive about the aging process. GRADE: A
I’m sure I’ll eventually give in to these arm-and-a-leg rentals but I’m not there yet.
Michael, Patrick, Katie, Diane, and I watched THE FATHER for $20. We had 48 hours to watch it.
So many movies about dementia you can see what a concern it is. Saw Supernova with Firth and Tucci a few months ago. Maybe eventually I will be able to watch it.
Patti, movies about dementia and Alzheimer’s make for grim viewing. Diane immediately had to watch a HALLMARK movie after THE FATHER to lift her spirits.
We will watch it, eventually. We rented NOMADLAND for $13,99 and PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN.
Yes, there have been a number of Alzheimers movies. Remember IRIS? Judi Dench as an aging Iris Murdoch with Alzheimers (and Kate Winslet as her younger self). Then there was Julie Christie in AWAY FROM HER, based on an Alice Munro story (“The Bear Came Over the Mountain”). And STILL ALICE with Julianne Moore. A couple of years ago in Florida we saw THE LEISURE SEEKER, with Donald Sutherland having dementia (and Helen Mirren as his wife, who was dying of cancer). I’m sure there are others. It’s always a juicy acting role. ELIZABETH IS MISSING with Glenda Jackson was on Masterpiece recently. ROBOT & FRANK (Frank Langella as an aging thief losing his memory). THE SAVAGES (2007) with Laura Linney & Philip Seymour Hoffman.
I found a list. I haven’t seen: THE ARTIST”S WIFE with Bruce Dern and Lena Olin. ASHES (2012) with Ray Winstone. AURORA BOREALIS (2005) with Donald Sutherland (again) and Louise Fletcher. A SHORT HISTORY OF DECAY (2013), which I’d never heard of, with Linda Lavin the mother with Alzheimers. Another I don’t know: WHAT THEY HAD (2018), with Blythe Danner, Robert Forster as her husband, Hilary Swank and Michael Shannon as their children.
Jeff, we DVRed ELIZABETH IS MISSING but haven’t watched it yet. Both Diane and I have a low tolerance for movies and TV shows that center around catastrophic illness like cancer and dementia and Alzheimer’s. We can only take so much sadness.
I don’t ant to watch that!
Seeing my sister’s English husband, a really nice person, falling into Alzheimer’s more and more is bad enough for us.
And a neighbour is fighting against cancer right now – we visit him once a week, it’s stress for him after an hour so we go home again.
Of course we know that he won’t make it – will it take three months or a year?
Rather OT:
Every time I walk to my favourite bar in my hometown Tübingen (of course closed now because of the pandemic) I pass a sign on an old city house/hotel:
Here lived Alois Alzheimer for a time as a student.
Wolf, Alzheimer’s is a spreading among the aging population. Let’s up someone comes up with a treatment or vaccine to protect us from it!
My brother died of Covid 19 while in the Alzheimer’s wing of the nursing home. I’m scared to death of it. I will not watch this or any Alzheimer’s related film.
Rick, I saw what Alzheimer’s did to my mother. Tragic.
I will pass on this one as I see too much demetia in real life. My sportwriting partner for several years is now living in a secure facility so he can’t wander away. The other day he told a friend he was just back from Boston and Chicago. Yesterday I had a call from a female high school clasmate who said she would be moving into the same facility very soon. Said she had fallen where she lives with her daughter and family and that the stairs were a problem along with no one else being there during the day. I mentioned about not being able to go to a nearby Rehfit Centre due to COVID and she said she hadn’t been there for years. I saw her there just around the time the pandemic hit so I began to wonder about her memory. About two hours later she left me a message saying that she wanted to tell me about her upcoming move so I guess I was correct about the memrory issue being related to her move. Another close friend also is dealing with the onset of dementia so his wife keeps a close watch in particular related to where he goes in the car. He recently told me that his wife no longer would agree to any long road trips, which is something they used to do a few times each year. Another friend told me that he’s having problems with hsi short-term memory. It’s a sad disease.
Kent, you’re right about the growing amounts of dementia in Real Life. Memory problems among our friends is common. So far, Diane and I are still sharp.
I want nothing to do with films about Alzheimer’s! I’m getting there fast enough as it is! Although, I’d rather see one of them than a Hallmark movie!
Jeff, don’t forget The Notebook, with James Garner!
Bob, Diane DVRed at least a dozen HALLMARK movies. She watches one whenever she needs a lift.
Kent’s post reminds me of another danger that might get you when you’re older:
The risk of falling, especially on stairs.
My sister was in London visiting her son and daughter, of course she had presents for her grandchildren with her. You may know that the London is really deep below and when she got up one of those long escalators she tumbled. Having a large plastic bag in each hand she couldn’t hold tight to the railing and fell on her face which needed some stitches. Luckily her son lives close by and came with her and the ambulance.
She clearly told me:
Always have one hand free in case anything happens!
And I’ve been following that advice after I also tumbled and fell – but only a small wound luckily – just a lot of blood since my blood is so thin …
Wolf, we just had our two bathrooms renovated. Both the new bath tub and the new walk-in shower have several “grab-bars” to help with entering and exiting. Several of our friends have fallen lately. One fell while walking her dog and broke her wrist.