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Olivia Colman

TIFF20: The Father

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In The Father, Sir Anthony Hopkins plays Anthony, an elderly but wealthy man who cannot admit that he can no longer care for himself. When his daughter Anne (Olivia Colman) informs him that she intends on moving to Paris, she attempts to bring in a home care nurse, Laura (Imogen Poots). As his condition deteriorates, Anthony struggles to adjust to the changes with moods swings that range from charming to insulting and Anne is forced to consider that her father may be better off in a long-term care facility instead of his beloved London flat.

The debut film from director by Florian Zeller, The Father is an emotional journey into the heart of dementia and the how it affects those on the outside. Though the film features an incredible performance by Olivia Coleman as the caring but torn Anne, the film is truly anchored by Sir Anthony Hopkins, who may have turned in one of the best performances of his career. As the centre of almost every scene, Hopkins is simply remarkable as the fading elder, imbuing his character with both vibrancy and terror.

In The Father, Anthony is a man who is constantly loved yet causes chaos within the home. Even so, while we bear witness to the fact that those around him struggle with his health, we also feel torn for Anthony as he continues to misread situations and react accordingly with fear, humour and rage. Honest and heartbreaking, The Father is an incredible example of what love looks like on the ground in the midst of struggle. The film’s shift in perspective serves as a reminder that the real terror may be within the mind of the person we love and the need for grace in the midst of that understanding from those around them.

The Father is currently streaming on the TIFF Bell Digital Theatre during the Toronto International Film Festival.

The Favourite – Machiavellian Comedy

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“I’m on my side. Always.”

It isn’t news that politics can be a cutthroat sport. But in the hands of Yorgos Lanthimos, all that palace intrigue can become the basis of humor. The Favourite is a Machiavellian comedy set 400 years ago that reflects the way power often happens in secret, but with important consequences.

Olivia Colman in the film THE FAVOURITE. Photo by Atsushi Nishijima. © 2018 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation All Rights Reserved

Set in the reign of Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) the story takes place almost entirely within the royal household. Anne is frail, crippled by gout, and retiring. She lacks the confidence and, it seems, the intelligence to handle matters of state. Lady Sarah Churchill (Rachel Weisz) is Anne’s longtime friend, confidant, lover, and controller. Even though Anne holds the power, Sarah knows how to manipulate her. Sarah is the éminence grise who, while working with the Whigs in the Parliament, actually runs the country.

When Sarah’s cousin Abigail (Emma Stone) shows up at the palace looking for a position, Sarah is not all that impressed. Abigail was born a part of the aristocracy, but her family’s bankruptcy took away the life she had expected. Sarah sends her to the kitchen to work as a scullery maid. But when Abigail makes an herbal remedy that helps the Queen’s gout, Sarah appoints her to be her own maid, perhaps grooming her to assist her in her political mechanizations. But Abigail sees it as a chance to make her own way. The Tory leader sees in Abigail a backchannel to the Queen. When Abigail discovers how Sarah is running things, and the power she has over Anne, Abigail begins to undermine her cousin and put herself forward. Eventually, their rivalry will take on much larger significance as each pushes the agenda of their political allies.

Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz in the film THE FAVOURITE. Photo by Yorgos Lanthimos. © 2018 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation All Rights Reserved

This is a dark comedy, with a good deal of scatological and bedroom humor. There is also a satirical quality to it as it looks at the political system as buffoonery. The Queen is unintelligent. The leader of the Whigs carries his prized racing duck around with him. The leader of the Tories is a consummate dandy. None of those tabularly in power is in any way worthy of respect. Or course, we could look at our own political system and wonder if anything has changed.

The story is based on historical people, however the events are fictional. Even so, it shows how important matters, even war and peace, may be determined not so much by reason as by personalities and how they manipulate situations. And because it is nearly all dealing with the aristocracy, we also understand that those who really pay the price for all this are people with no voice.

Rachel Weisz and Olivia Colman in the film THE FAVOURITE. Photo by Yorgos Lanthimos. © 2018 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation All Rights Reserved

It makes for an interesting twist that the world of politics in this story is based on these three women. The men in the story really have no control; they are used by the women to further their own goals. Each of the women is seeking something for herself. The Queen is looking for love. Sarah desires power. Abigail begins by seeking status and prestige, but soon that is not enough, she wants autonomy and freedom to do as she wants. It is a matter of everyone wanting their own good, even if it is at the expense of others.

Photos courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox

The Lobster – When Love is a Chore

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In a somewhat benign dystopia (The City) all people who are not in a relationship must go to a resort for single people. They have forty-five days to fall in love and become a couple, or they will be transformed into an animal. Yorgos Lanthimos (previous film: Dogtooth) brings us films that have very strange settings and allows us to see what seem to be fairly normal people in bizarre situations. So it is with The Lobster. This is a very different kind of romantic comedy than most viewers expect.

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David (Colin Farrell) is recently divorced and must check in to The Hotel and try to find a suitable mate. You would think people would be going crazy to pair up, but there is such a lack of emotion in this strange world that we’re not surprised that there are so many who fail. As David begins to close in on his end date, he manages to escape to the woods where there is a group of “Loners”, people who choose not to follow society’s rules about being in pairs and carry on a guerrilla war. There are rules to being in The Loners, including no flirting, but soon David is attracted to “Short Sighted Woman” (Rachel Weisz). Whereas in The Hotel such attraction would be encouraged, amidst The Loners, they risk being ostracized, so must develop their own way of showing affection.

There is a wonderful supporting cast that includes Olivia Colman (Hotel Manager), Lea Seydoux (Loner Leader), and John C. Reilly (Lisping Man). David is the only character with an actual name; the others are defined by their roles or their flaws.

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For those unfamiliar with Lanthimos (and since this is his first film in English, that will be most people), the kind of quirky world he has created might be compared to the films of Wes Anderson, although Lanthimos uses a more subtle and drier sense of humor. Here that translates into an entertaining look at what it means to love and be in love in a world where loving is not so much a joy, but a chore. For those in The Hotel, love must be found to survive, but that means it is not something that we experience so much as something that must be accomplished (or perhaps even faked). For David it is only in the freedom of the forest among the Loners that he finally finds love, but then it is forbidden. David and Short Sighted Woman must forge their own way to finding the joy that love represents.

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The film gives us a chance to consider the expectations of society that we fit a certain mold in our relationships. If we aren’t paired up, if we aren’t a couple, if we don’t meet certain criteria, we are outsiders. But then it seems the outsiders have their own set of rules. They expect conformity within their nonconformity. Trying to fit love into any set of rules may lead us to miss the kind of happiness that we find through the discovery of what makes any love unique.

Photos courtesy of A24