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Rating: What does it mean to be elderly, beyond certain idealized images from "Mulino Bianco" commercials, dreaming of a distant pastoral past in a lost Arcadia (if it ever existed)? Today, much is discussed about the third age, especially in Italy, where there is a growing percentage of the population at retirement age versus those still of working age. It's worth putting oneself in the shoes of those with so many, perhaps too many, springs behind them, and considering that the problems our elderly parents face might (it's not certain) become ours in due course.
“The Father (Nothing Is What It Seems)” is a film inspired by the play “The Father” by Florian Zeller, first staged in 2012 and brought to the screen by French director Philippe Le Guay in the 2015 film “Florida.” Although the theme of senile dementia is constant, the novel and striking aspect of the film here reviewed is depicting the story through the distorted perspective of the elderly protagonist, increasingly engulfed in that mental blurring process that leads from arteriosclerosis to full-blown Alzheimer's disease. The overall effect is indeed disorienting for the viewer, to such an extent that it's only at the end of the protagonist's odyssey that one can find the thread of the entire storyline.
Here, in a nutshell, are the events of a certain Anthony, masterfully played by Oscar winner Anthony Hopkins (how could one doubt the capability of someone who embodied Hannibal Lecter in "The Silence of the Lambs"?) who, upon reaching a certain age, begins to require the help of a home caregiver (and regardless of who it is, he will always find some reason to complain of alleged thefts of personal belongings and then dismiss them). The daughter (an intense Olivia Colman), bewildered by her father's senile decay, seeks a viable solution by hosting her increasingly unpredictable father in her home. Until the situation becomes more complicated when she informs him of her intention to move to Paris to live with her lover. The father starts feeling disoriented, suffering from hallucinations, seeing unfamiliar men in the apartment (elegantly furnished but very claustrophobic) who he does not recognize (former companions of his daughter), struggling to even recognize his daughter and pretending to be a tap dancer when introduced to the new caregiver (he who was an engineer...).
The epilogue of this carousel of paradoxical situations, from our point of view (yet perfectly logical in the mind of an increasingly ill man) is inevitable, despite him always claiming to be in perfect mental health: here is Anthony as a resident in an elegant retirement home. At that point, he is forced to ask: Who am I? Where am I? The poor man, feeling lost, can do no better than implore, crying, for his mother's visit. A truly heart-wrenching scene, underscoring the circular nature of existence and life: you are born after the pains of labor, we are weaned, reach an upright stance, grow to adulthood, before descending a long road toward an ever sadder sunset (provided no lethal accidents happen first) until we return to childhood.
As the film's subtitle clearly states, “Nothing Is What It Seems,” it follows that nothing is real. Here we delve into a vast debate that has traversed human thought for centuries, namely what can be defined as objective (as in real) and what is classifiable as subjective (only a figment of our imagination without any objective evidence). If one considers what transpires in each of our minds, finding scientific and objective reference points is complex but always possible. And still, there remains the enigma of how brain cells function in those entering an ever more critical and inefficient phase, as often happens in senility. This is a health issue felt especially by those who, like myself, have witnessed the suffering of a late father years ago and see what a mother is experiencing right now. Because the story represented by Anthony isn't just a splendid case of dramatic fiction, it is especially the tragedy of a life that once flowed normally but then got derailed. Therefore, even though the advice to prevent the ailments of advanced age by keeping the mind active daily is valid, failure can always unexpectedly emerge from around the corner.
It may be consoling not to know in advance when and how our time will come (perhaps prematurely from an apoplectic stroke in full youth), but in my opinion, however much one might believe in an afterlife, there always remains the uncertainty of the moment of passing. If it should occur amid a gradual dulling of mental faculties (aptly depicted in the film), it would be simply terrible, a true horror film (and not of those filled with splatter effects, but worse, much worse...). And I'm increasingly afraid of all this.
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