Susan Granger At The Movies

The Father

First seen sitting in a chair, reading a book while listening to classical music in his posh London flat, Anthony Hopkins delivers a heartbreaking performance in “The Father” as an 80-year-old trying to come to terms with the subtle disorientation of dementia.

At this point, Anthony — that’s his character’s name, since director Florian Zeller wrote the role specifically for Hopkins — barely recognizes his devoted daughter, Anne (Olivia Colman), who is trying to introduce him to Laura (Imogen Poots), a new caregiver.

“I don’t need you! I don’t need anyone!” he snaps.

Yet time plays tricks on his mind. Is Anne really moving to Paris, as she tells him in the first scene? Why isn’t she still the young woman (Olivia Williams) he remembers? Is she married to the man (Mark Gatiss) reading a newspaper who identifies himself as his son-in-law? Or does she have a different husband (Rufus Sewell)?

Where is his favorite daughter, Lucy? Wasn’t the roast chicken already in the oven? And where did he put his watch?

Adapting his own award-winning French play, a sharp-edged character study delving into corrupted memories, Florian Zeller, collaborating with playwright Christopher Hampton, allows us to view his now-fragmented existence though irascible Anthony’s skewed perception.

At times brusque and occasionally charming, Anthony is deeply frightened, trying to make sense of a harrowing world he no longer fully comprehends.

“The film is dealing with a universal subject at this very moment in our lives — with loneliness, dementia, mental illness and suicide rates going up,” Hopkins notes.

Headed toward another Best Actor Oscar nomination, Anthony Hopkins won in 1992 as Hannibal Lecter in “The Silence of the Lambs,” followed by his unflappable butler in Merchant/Ivory’s “Remains of the Day,” the title role in Oliver Stone’s “Nixon,” and John Quincy Adams in Steven Spielberg’s “Amistad.” Last year, Hopkins was nominated for Best Supporting Actor as Pope Benedict in “The Two Popes.”

On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Father” is an empathetic 8, brilliantly acted and emotionally devastating.

The White Tiger

“The Indian entrepreneur has to be straight and crooked, mocking and believing, sly and sincere — all at the same time,” says Balram Halwai (Adarsh Gourv) in Netflix’s “The White Tiger” as an introduction to India’s immobile, insidiously complex caste system.

Balham comes from lowly candy-makers. A precocious student, Balram’s potential is so stellar that he’s dubbed “a white tiger,” indicating he’s a rare, symbolic, once-in-a-generation phenomenon.

But he has no money to complete his education, and his impoverished, ancestral village is ruled by a ruthless landlord and his sons. When Balram first sees the youngest son Ashok (Rajkummer Rao), who has just returned from America, he’s determined that this young man will be his new “master.”

Intelligent and observant, Balram learns there’s great opportunity as a driver for wealthy families and Ashok, who is married to Pinky (Priyanka Chopra Jonas), an outspoken American, needs a chauffeur.

When Ashok and Pinky do business in New Dehli, Balram’s behind the wheel. While they’re ensconced in an opulent Sheraton Hotel suite, Balram’s housed in a squalid hovel in the parking garage.

Then, one booze-filled night, Pinky insists on driving and a tragic accident occurs. Compliant Balram is not only blamed but also forced to sign a false confession.

Alluding to “Slumdog Millionaire,” he adds: “Don’t think there’s a million-rupee game show you can win to get out of it.”

With deceit, deception and betrayal lurking in every corner, wily Balram realizes what he must do to secure his future in the carnivorous class struggle: “Do we loathe our masters behind a façade of love, or do we love them bend a facade of loathing?”

“America is so yesterday. India is so tomorrow,” he asserts. “The future of the world lies with the yellow man and the brown man.”

Adapted and directed by Ramin Bahrani (“99 Homes”) from Arvind Adiga’s 2008 Booker Prize-winning novel, it chronicles rascally Balram’s rags-to-riches rise in modern-day India — thanks to karma and immersive cinematographer Paolo Carnera.

On the Granger Gauge, “The White Tiger” is a scathing 7, a cynical crime saga.

 

I’m Your Woman

After firmly establishing herself as “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” Emmy-winner Rachel Brosnahan goes for a total change-of-pace in Julia Hart’s neo-noir crime thriller “I’m Your Woman” about struggling to survive.

Brosnahan plays Jean, a sheltered suburban housewife whose husband Eddie (Bill Heck) surprises her with a baby. Unable to have children of their own, Eddie “acquires” one, and Jean knows enough about her thieving husband not to ask too many questions.

“It’s all worked out,” he tells her. “He’s our baby.”

Problem is: after Eddie screws up a robbery and disappears, his “associate” Cal (British-Nigerian actor Arinze Kene) shows up with a tote bag of cash, telling Jean they must leave her spacious house and go on the run with the crying infant, whom she’s named Harry.

“I’ve never been on my own,” she naively explains to Cal, as they flee from vengeful gangsters.

Striving for some sense of independence, Jean’s road trip as a fugitive includes an interlude in a remote cabin where she learns how to hold and shoot a gun, a skill that will later subsequently come into play.

That’s where she meets and intricately bonds with savvy Teri (Marsha Stephanie Blake), her son Paul (Da’Mauri Parks), and Cal’s father Art (Frankie Faison). who have already forged a connection with her missing husband Eddie.

“I’m so sick of everyone telling me what to do,” once-helpless Jean eventually decides, ready to muster the strength to reclaim her own life, heeding Cal’s advice: “Don’t look back...”

While striving for ‘70s authenticity, writer/director Julia Hart’s compelling female-centric character-study, co-written with her husband Jordan Horowitz, is filled with loopholes. Like how does Jean acquire so many changes of clothes since she didn’t have time to pack a suitcase? And why is a pivotal character inexplicably killed off-screen?

On the Granger Gauge, “I’m Your Woman” is a subtle, surprisingly unpredictable 6, streaming on Amazon Prime.

Susan Granger is a product of Hollywood. Her natural father, S. Sylvan Simon, was a director and producer at M.G.M. and Columbia Pictures. Her adoptive father, Armand Deutsch, produced movies at M.G.M.

As a child, Susan appeared in movies with Abbott & Costello, Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, Margaret O’Brien, and Lassie. She attended Mills College in California, studying journalism with Pierre Salinger, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with highest honors in journalism.

During her adult life, Susan has been on radio and television as an anchorwoman and movie and drama critic, syndicating her reviews and articles around the world, including Video Librarian. She has appeared on American Movie Classics and Turner Classic Movies. In 2017, her book 150 Timeless Movies was published by Hannacroix Creek Books.

Her website is www.susangranger.com. Follow her on Twitter @susangranger.

Also in Weston Today...