No matter who ends up with this year's Oscars, if the winner is not Anthony Hopkins, it will cast a dark curtain on the award, even if many people hope that this little golden man can add a touch of brilliance to the dedicated Chadwick Bosman.
I believe that many friends who like movies have already seen it, and Anthony Hopkins was nominated for this year's Oscar film emperor's work - "Father Trapped in Time", in which he gave a fascinating performance.
Alzheimer's patients have not been put on the big screen for the first time, and every time Alzheimer's patients are interpreted, it is a huge test of the actor's acting skills. I used to think that this kind of role had been played by Julianne Moore in "Still Alice", but I didn't think that Anthony Hopkins had surprised fans many years later.
The cleverness of Hopkins's performance in "Father Trapped in Time" is that there is not much "morbid" performance, but very daily, willful and stubborn in front of the family, arrogant and shelf in front of the juniors, old naughty children laughing and scolding, and the inferiority and uneasiness hidden under the anger...
The above characteristics we can see in the daily life of many elderly people in reality, and it is precisely because Hopkins accurately grasps the edges and corners of these elderly people in the performance that the audience first accepts the real character of the protagonist of the film, and then he slowly leads the audience into the inner world of such an old man who is troubled by chaotic memories.
Personally, I think that the final "looking for mother" in the hospital sublimated Hopkins' wonderful performance of 90 minutes.
Who would have thought that Hopkins, in his eighties, could instantly show a kind of little boyish crying and helplessness, and the impact of the difference between vision and emotion was too strong, as if the dying life had been kicked back to the origin of the tooth and tooth language.
There is no doubt that Anthony Hopkins is the strongest performer among this year's Oscar nominees, but as we all know, there are too many variables in the ownership of the little golden man, otherwise Hopkins' performance in "The Succession of the Pope" last year may not be worse than that of Brad Pitt in "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood".
Of course, it cannot be ignored that the success of "Father Trapped in Time" as a film is not only because of Hopkins's outstanding performance, its exquisite script and detailed scene changes, which are the magic that makes the film truly an immersive work.
The aforementioned works such as "Still Alice" allow the audience to observe the life of Alzheimer's patients from the perspective of a bystander, while "Father Trapped in Time" plays a deceptive trick in the narrative, and the audience will think that they are bystanders at first, and finally find that they have become an Alzheimer's patient like Anthony.
The jumping and switching of the faces of the daughter and son-in-law, the apartment where the sofa and stool change silently, what happened yesterday seems to have never happened, the things that have become a foregone conclusion do not know where to start, the director and screenwriter use the most daily life scenes, with slightly different story fragments repeatedly narrated, to build a chaotic labyrinth of life endgames for the audience, and even with horror in suspense.
Rather than being moved by this story, it is better to say that the strongest power of this movie is to allow every audience to experience the world of Alzheimer's patients to a limited extent, that is, the memory is constantly upside down and overturned, and the lines are constantly broken and reconnected, but the real concern and the strongest emotions in people's consciousness will always be hidden in this complex labyrinth.
And when the fictional scenes in Anthony's own mind gradually revealed one by one and began to collapse, the truth calmly spewed out, and the sudden sighing viewing experience can be described as full of staying power.
"Father Trapped in Time" is originally based on the stage play "Father" by French novelist and playwright Froine Zeller, which has been recognized by heavyweight awards in the field of stage plays, and this time it was filmed by him himself, which is even more handy.
However, in the past, "Father Trapped in Time" for me, may just be an excellent film with superb actors and exquisite scripts, but now, with the change of mentality in life (well, it is old), it is unconsciously derived from some superfluous feelings.
The English title of the film is "the father", which is more concise, the Taiwanese translation is literally translated as "Father", and the Hong Kong translation is a bit self-made and sentimental "Can Daddy Not Be Old", which is obviously really "Father Trapped in Time", the Chinese translation name is the most evocative, a "sleepy" word, not only the situation of Alzheimer's patients, but also a portrayal of the lives of a large number of elderly people.
Many people in life, the so-called struggle for half a life, do not seek great wealth and wealth (nor do they want to get it), but under the current social order, they seek a little right to choose.
But no matter how powerful a person is, when he is old and weak, even if he will not be shackled by his own consciousness like an Alzheimer's patient, the energy of life will gradually be emptied, and the power of choice will be forced to gradually transfer, or even directly deprived.
Thinking of this situation, life seems to inevitably lead to a doomed and powerless ending, and every person lying in a hospital bed, when he is nearing the end of his life, will there be a moment of uncontrolled body but consciousness screaming? I can't help but shudder when I think about it, and I am back in the faint horror of watching the movie halfway through.
In the end, when I am older, I can't stand watching this kind of film.