It seems that Europeans have the edge when it comes to telling such elegant tales on the sensitive subject of dementia.  Hard to forget the image of Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva  as the devoted elderly couple in Micheal Hanke’s  Amour in 2012.  They stole all our hearts and won every award imaginable in a drama that touched our very souls.

Now we have writer/director Florian Zeller’s debut feature film The Father which he adapted from his award-winning play of the same name.  The play has been staged in 45 countries, and when Frank Langella  starred in it on Broadway  in 2016 he won a Best Actor Tony.

The film  stars Sir Anthony Hopkins  (as Anthony) a wealthy 80 year old man who lives in a large Mansion Block apartment over looking a park in central Lindon. His daughter Anne (Olivia Colman) lives nearby and visits him daily.  As the film opens she is calmly encouraging him not to fire the latest caretaker she’s brought into his flat, as he has so many others. 

She explains she is dating a new man and is about to move to Paris and wants to see him settled with a new support system before he goes.  Anthony appears forgetful but initially still with all his faculties as he determinedly argues against having another stranger in the house.

However …. and without giving any spoilers away…. what seems like simple drama takes on a whole complicated dimension.  What we see on the screen from then on are really parts of Anthony’s fevered imagination which fights with his increasing dementia.  For example when we next see Anne she is played by Olivia Williams and is now married and living with her husband in the apartment.  

Each scene  we now see switches from reality to imagination to the point that Anthony cannot tell one from the other.  We just know that either way as his condition gets worse, the chances  of it ending happily decrease by the minute 

Hopkins is sublime in a masterful performance that is so very convincing about his predicament that it sends shivers down your back.  If he is not nominated for some major acting awards, then there is no justice in this world.

Colman, taking a break from her showy royal roles, turns in such a finely nuanced performance as the cool, collected daughter determined to do the right thing for her troubled father.  It works so superbly on screen as a balance to Hopkins emotional roller coaster.

Full credit to the powers that be who had  the good sense to allow Zeller to film his own work (after Christopher Hampton translated it) .  He ensured that his exceedingly beautiful drama had us reaching for our kleenex way too often.  He did however cover the whole question of dementia, and dealing with elderly parents, with such dignity and sensitivity that makes one think about it as real reality .

Maybe  however the film should carry a cautionary warning for elderly viewers as it is possible a little too close for comfort for some of us.