Daniel Day-Lewis is back. The acting legend retired in 2017, saying that he felt ‘hollowed out’ by the acting process. Eight years later, he’s on screen again with Anemone, with son Ronan as his director. Co-written by father and son, with father and Brad Pitt as executive producers, and co-stars Sean Bean and Samantha Morton, the powerful drama Anemone has all the right ingredients for his return.

Day-Lewis and Bean play Ray and Gem, middle-aged brothers in the north of England. Both grew up in the care system, away from their previously abusive father, where Ray was subject to further abuse from a local priest. The trauma is then added to by army careers that included various brutal stints in Northern Ireland during The Troubles. Ray left the army under a cloud about twenty years prior, married Nessa (Samantha Morton), but then suffered a mental breakdown whilst she was pregnant with son Brian (Samuel Bottomley). He abandoned life with them to live a hobbit’s life, alone in a remote cabin in the Yorkshire woods near the sea. Meanwhile, Gem has developed a romantic relationship with Nessa and brought up Brian as his own. Brian, now 20 and also in the army, has developed behavioural issues of his own and has been AWOL from the army following an assault. Gem thinks the solution to this is for Brian to meet and connect with his birth father, whom he’s never met. Armed with just a set of co-ordinates, Gem treks off into the forest to try and find Ray.

He finds the still lean and athletic Ray living in a rather ramshackle dwelling in the middle of nowhere, albeit a very tidy and ordered home, the discipline of his army years obviously still in place. At first Ray is not particularly pleased to see Gem and the two men circle each other like wary dogs. Gem hands Ray a letter from Nessa which sets the scene and requests his return for their son. Then Ray opens a bottle of whisky and the two men set to on a drinking session that begins the multi-day thrashing out of their grievances.

Ronan Day-Lewis has touched on the crisis affecting men. The inability to talk about problems, share ideas and solutions to personal issues has always affected men more than women, but seems to be getting worse for men as we increasingly live more isolated lives. Men aren’t taught how to be men at school. That role largely lies with their parents, but what if the parents are absent, or dealing with their own shit, or simply not the right role models? Who is there to guide them? Increasingly it’s influencers, and very often young men can go down the wrong path, aided and abetted by wrong ‘uns such as Nick Fuentes, Andrew Tate, Charlie Kirk and so on. Anemone examines how abuse and the lack of communication and resolution around it can have a huge knock-on effect through inter-generational and other familial trauma. Day-Lewis (68) and Bean (66) have a great chemistry, whether fighting, swimming in the sea or bathing together in a river, their similarly great levels of fitness an inspiration for all men. Day Lewis is in his element as the simple, stoic, impulsive, uncompromising Ray, full of hurt. Bean shines as he slowly, slowly tries to catch his monkey. Samantha Morton is excellent as the worn-down, traumatised mother, desperate for a solution to her son’s angst. Samuel Bottomley is brilliant as the often-unresponsive Brian, unable to articulate his way out of his trauma. This is a dialogue-rich tale, but often there’s nothing to say, and that’s just as important. Ronan Day-Lewis’s artist background is put to use in the many beautiful blue-green landscape shots of northern England, which along with a striking soundtrack, add to the atmospheric mystery. In a world full of portrait images on social media, it’s refreshing to be presented with big, bold landscapes again. His artistry veers off into the surreal at times, but this doesn’t detract from the plot. A tense, powerful drama for our times. Recommended.  8/10