The Father, the acclaimed drama starring Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman, is on TV tonight. Regarded as one of the best films of the decade so far, the project won two major gongs at the 93rd Academy Awards.
The film, which sees co-writer and director Florian Zeller adapt his own play of the same name, follows Hopkins as an octogenarian who is living with dementia. Colman portrays his daughter Anne, while Olivia Williams and Rufus Sewell have supporting roles.
If you missed the film when it first came out and feel like watching it, then it airs tonight at 11.20pm on Film4. Afterwards, it will be available to watch for free on Channel 4’s streaming service.
SEAN GLEASON//Lionsgate
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Upon its release, The Father garnered acclaim, with Hopkins winning the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his performance. Zeller and Christopher Hampton also won for Best Adapted Screenplay, while the film got a Best Picture nomination.
The Father has a near-perfect approval rating of 98% on Rotten Tomatoes from 298 reviews, making it the highest-rated project in Colman’s already-illustrious career.
“At once stupendously effective and profoundly upsetting, The Father might be the first movie about dementia to give me actual chills,” noted The New York Times, while USA Today called it “exceptional”.
“[It] captures the terrifying sensation of not remembering and not understanding the people and places around us, and the helplessness of having to have your reality explained to you,” opined TheWrap.
The Wall Street Journal was full of praise, writing: “What might have been predictable or sentimental in other hands becomes startling in the film’s approach, as well as beguiling, unsparing, terribly moving and occasionally very funny. Hopkins is the master of it all.”
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Little White Lies echoed this sentiment as they lauded the “unshakable performances”, while TIME Magazine called it a “polished piece of work” that offered no “false assurances” with its “unsparing” style.
If hard-hitting dramas aren’t necessarily your thing, then Channel 4 has plenty of other offerings on its streaming service, with Julia Roberts and George Clooney’s popular romcom Ticket to Paradise recently added.
The Father airs tonight at 11.20pm on Film4, and will be available to watch on Channel 4’s streaming service after broadcast.
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Reporter, Digital Spy George is a freelance writer who specialises in Movies and TV. After graduating with a degree in Film Studies and Journalism from De Montfort University, in which he analysed the early works of Richard Linklater for his dissertation, he wrote for several websites for GRV Media. Â His film tastes vary from blockbusters like Mission: Impossible and John Wick to international directors such as Paolo Sorrentino and Hirokazu Kore-eda, and has attended both the London and Berlin film festivals.
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