What a tremendous fall for director/co-screenwriter Florian Zeller. From Best Picture and Best Director nominee (and Best Actor winning, for Anthony Hopkins) for “The Father”, to possibly one of the worst movie ever made about mental health illness. I feel so highly offended for all the people suffering from psychiatric disorders, and also their families and loved ones.
This was a film that had no finesse and no nuance. Zeller (and co-screenwriter Christopher Hampton) told everything with a sledgehammer and bludgeoned it all bluntly into a deeply insulted audience. It grossly misunderstands what mental health illnesses are and gratuitously misused it for dramatic effects.
At just over two hours long, it was tiresome by the time we reached the halfway mark. Nothing would have been lost if Zeller had edited himself better and trim the film by 20 to 30 minutes. In particular, that whole epilogue and the flashbacks served no purpose other than handholding an imbecilic audience.
There honestly was a great story within this film. An exploration of inter-generational trauma, a meditation on a failed marriage and its associated harm, or even simply a story about moving on. Perhaps it worked better as a stage play and Zeller’s ideas translated better in its original French (and without Hollywood interference).
Instead, we had this misguided Oscar bait. If not for the big named stars attached to this film, this could easily have passed off as a clichéd, melodramatic Hallmark/Lifetime movie.
Hugh Jackman and Laura Dern tried their best. Dern, in particular, had some good moments, but Jackman, clearly the leading role, was saddled with an abominable script, an unsympathetic and annoying character and was just so flat such that his big moments felt unearned and only triggered even more eye-rolling.
Vanessa Kirby was honestly barely trying. Any one could have played her role. And poor Zen McGrath, as the troubled son, I hope his acting career recovers from this debacle.
The only bright spark was a cameo by Hopkins. Those brief minutes showed why he is such a revered actor and why he won his Oscars.
Zeller needs to go back to his roots. Trust his stories and his words as they were. Or if something new, stay away from (big) studio notes.
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