Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Olivia Colman, Mark Gatiss, Imogen Poots, Rufus Sewell, Olivia Williams, Ayesha Dharker Director: Florian Zeller THE best film about the wages of aging since “Amour” eight years ago, “The Father” takes a bracingly insightful, subtle and nuanced look at encroaching dementia and the toll it takes on those in close proximity to the afflicted. Fronted by a stupendous performance from Anthony Hopkins as a proud Englishman in denial of his condition, this penetrating work marks an outstanding directorial debut by the play’s French author Florian Zeller. First performed in France in 2012, the play has elicited hosannas wherever it has appeared, notably in Paris, where it won the 2014 Moliere Award for best play, in the U.K. from 2014 to 2016, and in New York, where Frank Langella won a Tony Award for his lead performance in 2016. Christopher Hampton did the English adaptation and receives co-screenwriting credit here. However, even as Zeller has remained faithful to himself in switching media, he has embellished his work with some keen visual elements that expand upon what was possible onstage and prove both disquieting and meaningful in conveying the experience of dementia. The film thereby deserves to be analyzed as a freshly conceived work in its own right, not just a transfer from one medium to another. “I don’t need you. I don’t need anyone,” barks Anthony (Hopkins) as his daughter Anne (Olivia Colman) tries to give him some simple assistance. Anthony lives in a handsome London flat, but she has some disruptive news to announce: She’s about to leave to live in Paris, a prospect that launches the old man into a disbelieving tirade until he switches gears and asks, “What’s going to become of me?” What’s clear is that Anthony can’t be left on his own. Still sharp in some ways, he nonetheless forgets things and people, although he won’t admit it. Sometimes he speaks softly and coherently enough to make you believe he still knows what’s going on; at other times he’s disoriented or possibly playing little games to make it look like he’s more in control than he really is. He is, in a phrase, in and out. All the same, everyone knows where things are inevitably headed. Early on, Anne’s presumed husband (Mark Gatiss) turns up to suggest that Anthony’s got to get out because it’s not actually his flat. Not long after, another man, Paul (Rufus Sewell), materializes as Anne’s husband, and it’s not a case of polygamy. When an attractive new nurse/caregiver Laura (Imogen Poots) reports for duty, the old man unleashes such compliments that she can’t help but remark to Anne how charming the old man is. “Not always,” she warns. In company and for short periods, Anthony can be spry and lucid to the point that newcomers might be convinced that he’s not so badly off. But any prolonged exposure to him removes any question of his capacity to be left to his own devices. Significantly elevating the film’s insight into the old man’s impaired lucidity is some very understated visual manipulation of the physical surroundings he inhabits. When Anthony at one point can’t find something he’s looking for, he asks if he’s actually in his own flat, and his daughter won’t answer. Viewers who have been watching carefully might notice very slight differences in the décor and layout, suggesting that perhaps he may not be where he thinks he is. Given the nature of the affliction itself, one knows that things aren’t going to get better, but as Anthony slips away from nearly all contact with reality another figure appears, that of a nurse, Catherine (Olivia Williams). The circumstances could not be more different, but the raging and manipulative old man with female offspring can hardly fail to bring to mind thoughts of "King Lear," if on a much smaller playing field. “The Father” is sharp, teasingly diabolical and, most of all, an account of an insidious disease that’s deadly on point. The movie is now being screened in Shenzhen. (SD-Agencies） | 