1. The 83-year-old Oscar winner – Anthony Hopkins
The last time I saw an Anthony Hopkins movie was Silence of the Lambs. The 83-year-old Oscar winner, as long as he has seen the movie, will definitely feel that the old man deserves his name. In the movie, he plays a patient with Alzheimer's disease. During the disease process, people not only rely heavily on their family members, but also become more and more restless, restless, indifferent, suspicious, irritable, sensitive, vulnerable, hopeless, and helpless. . Everything is in place, and the performance is naturally unmarked.
In daily life, he will feel that there are always strange things happening around him. At first, he said, "I keep throwing things, and there are always people stealing my things." Then he would wake up and find that the street outside the window had suddenly changed. Later, even the layout of the apartment became less and less what he remembered. look.
The watch, the painting of the youngest daughter, and his apartment, the three straws that he finally grabbed at the end were also broken one by one, and finally all hope was cut off.
In terms of relationships with those around him, from the very beginning, Anthony showed obvious separation anxiety for his children (anxiety). When his daughter Ann told him that she was going to live in Paris, he lowered his head like a child and muttered to himself, "You are leaving me. You are abandoning me." Knowing that he would be separated from his daughter, he looked worried ( worried), helpless (helpless) and scared (scared).
He's withdrawn, doesn't get along with anyone, and just wants to live alone in what he claims is "his own apartment." And Ann came to see him this time because he was angry and forced several nannies away, so she had to introduce a new nan to take care of Anthony.
His condition is getting worse and worse, and his sense of crisis is also increasing. For Alzheimer's patients, the manifestations of paranoia and persecution delusions are also very obvious and will continue to deepen. Not only was the nanny stealing his things, but the son-in-law was also rude to him, even punching and kicking, and the daughter seemed to be coveting his apartment.
Over time, Anthony eventually developed to the point where he couldn't take care of himself. The watch disappeared too, and he began to wonder if it was morning or night. He doesn't remember recent events, but he recalls more distant events, such as his dead little daughter, such as his own mother. Every day I confirm other people's names, and then confirm my own name (keep confirming himself).
When he "appeared" in the ward of the nursing home, he left the my flat he used to talk about, and for the first time confided to the audience what he wanted to say when he was sick. This is the only plot in the whole film that is close to reality.
However, even if he gained a little support at this moment, he will continue to face a completely changed world at the next moment.
All of the above truly reflect the mental world of AD patients. Those who seem crazy are not lunatics, but because of the disorder of memory, he gradually loses control over his life and himself. Throughout his illness, his body went from upright to bent, then curled up in corners like a hedgehog. His eyes also changed from hoarseness to doubt to despair, and gradually lost their light. A sense of loss of control gradually invaded his emotions, and Anthony became more and more extreme. He is like a drowning person, the instinct of survival drives him to struggle in the water, but the more he struggles, the heavier he feels, and the infinite sense of despair before he loses his last strength.
2. Daughter Anne, who is also in trouble
On the other hand, not only the elderly Anthony, but also the daughter Anne and her family are also deeply trapped in this disease predicament. Although Anne's own part is not the main content in the film, there is no doubt that Anthony's illness has had a great impact on Anne's life.
No matter how chaotic and disordered Anthony's mental world was, he had two or three memories that reappeared countless times.
He forced several babysitters away.
Daughter once said to leave him to go to Paris.
Quarrel between son-in-law and daughter.
Son-in-law's impatient attitude towards him, verbal or physical violence...
So, the fact that he lived with his daughter and son-in-law, and during this period, the quarrel between them because of Anthony, and the head-on conflict between the son-in-law and him, must exist.
The above are just movie clips, but the fact is, they all actually happened to Anne, a family member of an Alzheimer's patient.
The 45-year-old Oscar-winning actress Olivia Colman ( Olivia Colman ) also contributed very superb acting skills in the film.
Because of her father's illness, her life will inevitably be affected. Ann, who already has a family of her own, initially wanted to preserve her life as much as possible between caring for her father and family. So he hired a babysitter for his father, but he was forced away one by one.
Anthony's illness is getting more and more serious, considering that there is no one to take care of him, Ann chooses to let Anthony come to her home temporarily. But this led to a quarrel between her and her husband, and Anthony's character became more and more withdrawn and weird.
It wasn't just Anthony who was drowning, Anne was also deeply involved. Because of Anthony's illness, she felt that her own life was drifting away from her, but she couldn't leave her father ruthlessly, but her father, who she took care of with all her might, was also estranged from her step by step because of her illness.
Physically and mentally exhausted, she also fell into despair.
This is the first film to focus on the spiritual world of Alzheimer's patients. The director's narrative technique is very clever. The more the audience tries to sort out the plot according to the conventional timeline and logic, the more confused they will be. As to whether Anthony suffered violence, whether it came from his son-in-law or a nursing home doctor. All we don't know. Because any plot, any characters or even objects become extremely unreliable. But this is the course of the disease in AD patients.
What I find very rare about this movie is that it mainly uses the changes of the environment to express the mental world of Alzheimer's patients, and the patients in this movie are not much different from a normal person. AD patients are like riding alone in a small boat, facing the unpredictable sea weather that may overturn him at any time. Losing more and more sense of control over their own lives is what differentiates them from other mental illnesses.
[The layout and tone of the movie are very aesthetic. Apart from the heartache of being sick, the process of watching the movie must be a great audio-visual enjoyment. Favorite shot: Anthony is quietly in the kitchen with a blue plastic bag next to him, taking the bag out and holding it in his hand for a few seconds before putting it back in his pocket.
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