The Father (2020) or, Disintegration

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Critical hype is the background to an intimate moment between the father-daughter pair on this poster for Florian Zeller's The Father

Anthony is an old man who was recently moved in with his daughter in an arrangement that doesn't really relieve either party, as he is going through the process of escalating dementia.

 

The Father is written by Christopher Hampton (The Quiet American (2002)) and debuting co-writer/director Florian Zeller (Empreintes (2010, TV documentary), adapting his own 2012 play La Père ('the father').

It is the latest in the 'star-actor-gets-Alzheimers/dementia' drama subgenre, and certainly an eloquent, - visually and narratively, - new work in this tradition. Narratively the novelty here is that Zeller has different actors portray the same characters, reflecting for us the confusion and inability to remember faces that a person with dementia experiences. This is an effective and highly unpleasant feature of The Father.

Anthony Hopkins (The Dawning (1988)) is on fire here in a tragic role that also lays bare how mood-swings and rudeness can be regular companions for the person with dementia, whose self is in a process of complete disintegration. Olivia Colman (The Lobster (2015)) is moving and dignified as his hurting, accommodating daughter.

Watching The Father is an awful ordeal. It is well-acted and well-made but a colossal downer, though probably rightfully so. Nevertheless I don't expect I will need to revisit this one in the future.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 6 mil. $

Box office: 13.4 mil. $ and counting

= Uncertain - at the moment ranks as a flop but could improve status

[The Father premiered 27 January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 97 minutes. No less than 11 companies were involved with the financing and production of the film. Shooting took place in London, England. The film's release was greatly inhibited by the China Virus pandemic. It opened #8 in 865 theaters to a 433k $ first weekend in North America, where it never attained a higher rank and grossed 2.1 mil. $. Currently North America was its 3rd biggest market, with Australia (2.3 mil. $) and France (2.2 mil. $) being the biggest and 2nd biggest. But the film is still only now rolling out in several markets: 15 June Columbia; 19 June China; 24 June Slovakia; 20 August Sweden; 26 August Germany and the Netherlands. The film was nominated for 6 Oscars, winning 2: For Best Actor (Hopkins) and Adapted Screenplay. It lost Best Picture to Nomadland, Supporting Actress (Colman) to Yuh-Jung Youn in Minari, Editing to Sound of Metal and Production Design to Mank. It won 2/6 BAFTA nominations, was nominated for 4 Golden Globes and several other honors. IMDb's users have rated the film in at #105 on the site's Top 250 list, sitting between The Kid (1921) and Full Metal Jacket (1987). Zeller returns with The Son, another adaptation of a play of his. Hopkins returned in Elyse (2020); Colman in 6 TV and voicing projects and is set to return physically and theatrically in Mothering Sunday (2021). The Father is certified fresh at 98 % with an 8.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of The Father?

Sabotage (2014) or, Hardcore Badasses!

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Arnold Schwarzenegger and his band of roughnecks meet you heavily armed in David Ayer's Sabotage

A DEA operations group 'lose' 10 mil. $ at a big explosion of drug cash money and are then investigated for months. When they are finally activated again, they begin dying one by one.

Sabotage is a hardboiled, violent, extremely bloody revenge action-thriller that also involves drugs and f-bombs and other cuss-words dropped left and right continuously. - It won't appeal to all, for sure.
But it has good characters; not least the two female ones: Olivia Williams (Hyde Park on Hudson (2012)) looks to be enjoying her time playing a radically different, strong, contemporary cop character, and Mireille Enos (The Killing (2011-14)) reminded me of a young, red-headed, white Grace Jones, (which is a compliment in the context.) They are good, and so are Joe Manganiello (Magic Mike (2012)), Sam Worthington (Avatar (2009)) and Arnold Schwarzenegger (The Last Stand (2013)) as the natural center of the movie, group leader Breacher.
Sabotage features cool cars and weapons and a nightmarish train-scene. It all leads forward with building tension to SPOILER a Mexican finale that is a little incongruent to the rest of the film, but still strangely enjoyable, in which Arnie comes out as the avenger from the North, good as always.
It is directed by David Ayer (End of Watch (2012)), who is also seeing the release of his huge WWII tank movie Fury in 2014. 

Related posts:

2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]

Olivia Williams wears cool shades, looks cools and plays well in David Ayer's Sabotage

Thai poster with a stone-set Arnold for David Ayer's Sabotage

Watch an awesome trailer for the film here

Cost: 35 mil. $
Box office: 17.5 mil. $
= Big flop
[Sabotage was the worst opening for an Arnold-starring film in over 30 years (just 5.3 mil. $ US opening weekend) and only got to 10.5 mil. $ in total American gross, which is terrible. The rest of the world didn't help Sabotage much, which didn't even have a theatrical premiere in several countries like Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Italy, Canada and Hungary. It got bad reviews generally, but apart from that I cannot explain its lamentable result. Younger male action-fans are obviously not a dependable segment anymore, (and that's really sad.)]

What do you think of Sabotage?
Why do you think it flopped so badly?

The Ghost Writer/The Ghost (2010) - A master at work

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3 Film Excess nominations:

Best Screenplay: Robert Harris, Roman Polanski (lost to Christopher Nolan for Inception)
Best Music: Alexandre Desplat (lost to Treme S1)
Best Production Design: Albert Konrad (lost to Boardwalk Empire S1)

+ Best Thriller of the Year

A poster for Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer

The Ghost Writer is based on a novel by Robert Harris (Enigma (2001)), and its script was co-written by Harris and the writer-director, great Polish-French Roman Polanski (Chinatown (1974)).
The story revolves around the unnamed protagonist, who is a ghost writer, - a writer who pens memoirs for the rich and famous without being publicly acknowledged, - as he gets his biggest assignment yet: The memoir of the British ex-PM Adam Lang. Meeting with Lang, his subject, on a hostile little American island, the writer learns that his predecessor died, and that a foul secret lies behind the persona he is employed to portray with 'heart'.

Ewan McGregor in Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer

Ghost is a very smart film; it is inspired by British ex-PM Tony Blair and his relations to the American Bush administration, but it never becomes an angry political movie as such. More so, Ghost Writer is like a detective story, with the writer as the detective. 
Ewan McGregor (The Impossible (2012)) proves perfect in the role, (which had previously been cast with Nicholas Cage, who wouldn't have fit it nearly as well), and we never really question his primary decision to take on the job. In several other parts, Ghost flashes its impressive, perfect cast: In substantial supporting roles, Pierce Brosnan (Love's All You Need (2012)) is the perfect Lang; Olivia Williams (Rushmore (1998)) exudes intelligence and danger as Mrs. Lang, and Kim Cattrall (Big Trouble in Little China (1986)) is a believable assistant-mistress; I wish I saw her in more good parts like this one, which she can obviously pull off. In minor parts, Ghost also holds several gems; Eli Wallach (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)) has a delightful little scene; Timothy Hutton (Ordinary People (1980)) can be seen in a very small part; American comedian James Belushi (Red Heat (1988)) goes bald as an editorial executive, and is hilarious; and finally Tom Wilkinson (The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)) is grand as a viper-like distinguished professor.
The Ghost Writer is a marvelous thriller from master-director Polanski; with a perfect, dark, disillusioned Polanski-type ending and numerous turns and delicious ingredients along the way.

Roman Polanski directs Pierce Brosnan in The Ghost Writer

Ghost also holds a masterful thriller score by Alexandre Desplat (The King's Speech (2010)), brilliantly elegant photography and very intelligent set design with many very nice touches, by Albrecht Konrad (When Pigs Have Wings (2011)); the central house is a very unnatural, unpleasant, cold, modern environment, which subtly speaks volumes about its inhabitants.
Much can be read out of most of auteur-director Polanski's movies. In this case, the lesson might be that life is a struggle, and that truth gets lost along the way.
Polanski, for better or worse, seems to invite an autobiographical reading of his works, as parts of his extraordinary life seems to correlate with some of his movies: Losing his mother to Auschwitz in WWII, (and seeing his father and sister marched off to camps as well, (which they survived)), - witnessing the horrors of the war and being a child Jew in the Krakow ghetto, Polanski's first films, shorts like Two Men and a Wardrobe (1958) and his first feature Knife in the Water (1962) shows flair for and, a mind bend on, the absurd. Later in life, Polanski made a strong film about WWII, The Pianist (2002). Following Polanski's mainstream breakthrough in America with Rosemary's Baby (1968), a film about a woman who gets impregnated by the devil, Polanski's real-life pregnant wife Sharon Tate was murdered along with four other victims in Hollywood by members of the evil Manson family. Polanski was in London. In 1978, Polanski fled America after pleading guilty to having had sex with a 13 year-old girl. Post-production of Ghost was put on hold when Polanski was arrested by Swiss police in 2009 due to the 30 year-old case; Polanski finished Ghost, - which involved PM Lang, a fugitive from justice himself, - from house arrest in Switzerland.
Though much can be said and written of all the controversies in Polanski's life, often autobiographical readings don't hold up under scrutiny, as is also the case here; Polanski has made many other films that do not have overt connections to his own life, and even the ones that seem to have such are arguable. The myth is merely a man, in other words, but a very fascinating one at that.
His most recent film stars Emmanuelle Seigner and Matheiu Amalric, is about film-making and is entitled Venus in Fur.

Related posts: 

2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Olivia Williams in Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer

Watch the trailer for the film here

Budget: 45 mil. $
Box office: 60.2 mil. $
= Lukewarm commercial reception

What do you think of The Ghost Writer?
Any comments about Roman Polanski are welcomed