Mr. Movie: ‘The Father’ brilliantly explores the pain of memory loss

The Father

“The Father” is an intense — and difficult — look into what it must be like to have dementia. It also amplifies the pain experienced by a loved one as they watch someone they love slowly cease to be that person.

Anthony Hopkins plays an old man living with his daughter. Or is she living with him. You’re never really sure. Sometimes she’s Olivia Colman’s Anne and at other times she’s a woman played by Olivia Williams. You’re sure which one is the daughter but he isn’t.

He likes a possible caretaker. They click immediately. The next time they meet she’s not close to the person he thinks he met. All of this is a big problem for Anne. And for the husband who might, or might not, be a part of her life.

Men live in the flat. Two of them. One is Anne’s husband and the other isn’t — or is he?

Hopkins’ performance is mind-blowing. The man is slowly losing his mind. And he’s doing it a piece at a time; a memory at a time. In a most convincing — and frightening manner — Hopkins shows you how the man isn’t sure about things, the people in his life, and where he lives. Sometimes it’s day to day. At other times it is minute-to-minute.

Hopkins shows how someone with dementia finds it difficult to hang onto reality. He plays it patiently at first. Then he brilliantly bounces between confused and angry and then anxious and hopeless.

Colman’s (Oscar and Golden Globes for “The Favourite”) work matches Hopkins’ and perfectly captures the pain of a woman losing the man who has been most important to her life, and who gave her life, and who hopes against hope that he’ll somehow recover.

She knows he won’t. To Anne her father’s confusion is like staring into an abyss. There is no solution. The void is unending.

Anne also has a life and it’s one she needs to live. Tough choices must be made. They’re ones people make everyday and they’re painful, awful choices.

That’s the beauty — if you can call it that — of writer/director, Florian Zeller’s movie. He not only shows how difficult it is for the loved ones but he puts you in the head of a person with dementia.

The ability to give you that perspective is impressive. It’s also depressing. Very.

The movie is based on Zeller’s stage play. There is something magical when a play is turned into a movie and it is done right. An important line will end a scene, a character will stop and while they’re frozen in place, Zeller has the movie fade to black.

Sometimes you feel like the scenes were done in one take, or that the actors did the movie in three acts and 90-minutes.

Though it’s amazing work, “The Father” probably isn’t for everyone. It’s a total downer. However, if you love great acting, even better writing and a movie that gives you a glimpse of what it’s like to be afflicted with dementia, do see this one.

By the way, “The Father” picked up four Golden Globe nominations and on Monday morning when the Oscar nominations are made it’ll likely pick up four of them. Hopkins and Colman are shoo-ins for best actor and best supporting actress nods. Look for Zeller to get a best director nomination, and for he and screenplay writer Christopher Hampton to get adapted screenplay nominations.

The movie is that good.

▪ Rated PG-13 for mature themes. It’s playing at the Fairchild Cinemas Queensgate 12 and at the AMC Classic Kennewick 12.

▪ Rating: 4 out of 5

Boogie

Those who know me and who regularly read my reviews know how much I love basketball. Until COVID I played full court, fast-break basketball two or three times a week.

Not bad for someone in their 70s.

Regular readers also know my love of basketball doesn’t extend to basketball movies. I’ve liked a few of them, but sports movies — and specifically basketball flicks — are rarely very good.

That’s the case with “Boogie.”

Alfred “Boogie” Chin is an Asian-American high school kid with an attitude. A bad one. The kid is also a basketball phenom being pegged by some as potential National Basketball Association material.

First, he has to get through high school.

That’s tough. Part of the attitude problem is his relationship with his parents. Boogie doesn’t like them much. Dad has them deep in debt, has been in prison for assault, and he and mom don’t like each other any better than Boogie likes them.

The parents have opposing ideas on the direction of their child’s budding basketball career. Dad — who has taught him a lot about the game and who has not seen Asian athletes set the sporting world on fire — wants him to go to a major college on a free ride scholarship. Those offers aren’t coming.

Asterisk. This is just one of many areas where director and writer, Eddie Haung’s movie falls apart. China’s Yao Ming starred in the NBA. Jeremy Lin set the NBA on fire a few years ago.

Back to the movie. Mom doesn’t care about scholarships and pursues a different angle. Boogie doesn’t care deeply about college or the NBA. He doesn’t seem to care deeply about anything. He’s just unhappy. The scowl never leaves Boogie’s face. Nor the faces of his parents. And now that I think about it, scowls don’t leave the faces of just about everyone in “Boogie.”

Also in the plot is a high school basketball coach pressuring Boogie and a beautiful girl that he likes. Both relationships start out as an oil and water but eventually work things out.

Boogie and his girlfriend feel discriminated against in a mostly white society.

That’s often the focus of Huang’s movie. Some of what he has to say is interesting. Most of it is annoying. It’s hard to like movies about teenagers and teen angst in the first place, and it’s impossible to like one about a whiny teenager.

The root of the unhappiness — says Huang — is racism.

Boogie’s issue is living in a more or less white society with Chinese parents who are still living like they are living in Taiwan. In one scene Boogie’s dad tells him someday he’ll take him home. Since I don’t know the exact line from Boogie’s answer, I’ll paraphrase. He says something like, “I thought this is our home.”

Scenes from Boogie’s English lit class point that out his confusion. They’re covering “The Catcher in the Rye” and much of the discussion in class is Holden Caulfield and his dilemma.

Boogie can’t relate to Caulfield. In fact, he can’t relate to anyone and that includes teammates on the basketball court. Boogie can’t stand them. He thinks they’re all losers. Fitting in — apparently — just isn’t his thing.

There isn’t much to like in “Boogie.” You don’t like him. His parents suck. The best buddy is pretty cool and so is Boogie’s love interest but the movie doesn’t revolve around them. It revolves around him.

He’s not likable and neither is this movie.

▪ Rated R for mature themes and language. It’s playing at the AMC Classic Kennewick 12.

▪ Rating: 2 out of 5

This story was originally published March 11, 2021 at 5:34 PM with the headline "Mr. Movie: ‘The Father’ brilliantly explores the pain of memory loss."