Weekend Watch: Cherry And The Father
Two tales of changing lives
Image Credit: Apple TV+
Welcome to the latest edition of Weekend Watch, in which I recommend (or occasionally warn against) movies or TV shows I’ve been checking out. This week, Tom Holland falls into addiction and Anthony Hopkins is having trouble with reality.
When approaching a story of addiction, suffering, crime and consequence, even one that has its roots in truth, it’s tough to avoid the lingering shadow of tropes that float over the whole endeavour. It’s something that Joe and Anthony Russo, returning to (slightly) smaller-scale filmmaking after their time breaking box office records with the giant Avengers movies for Marvel, can’t quite escape, leaving Cherry as a hit–and–miss affair.
Adapted from Nico Walker’s semi-autobiographical novel (written while the author was in prison for bank robbery) by Jessica Goldberg and Angela Russo-Otstot, Cherry follows the eponymous main character (Tom Holland) as he tackles the tough cards that life has dealt him. Poor and disenfranchised in Ohio, he meanders through life, taking odd jobs and eventually dropping out of college to join the Army. Tossed into desert combat as a medic, his experiences and the losses of fellow soldiers leave him with an uphill battle to cope at home, even with love in his life. He turns to a life of crime to support his burgeoning drug habit.
Holland certainly takes full advantage of the chance to shrug out of Peter Parker’s suit (not that his work on Spidey isn’t packed with charm, just slightly less cause for masturbating in a portable toilet) for a character who is far more tortured than even a teenager tasked with helping save the world. Yet even his role falls victim to the pitfalls of cliché. His Cherry is a likable sort at first, before descending into a miasma of druggie behaviour and tainted love. Still, underneath it all, there’s the undeniable appeal of Holland’s nature. He believable portrays the PTSD and haunted nature of the lad on his return from war, which sinks him deeper into narcotics and sends him into his criminal life. Also given a chance to shine, albeit in a slightly more limited capacity, is Ciara Bravo as Emily, the girl that our leading man meets in college, falls deeply in love with and with whom he descends into drugs hell.
Yet given the directors’ frenetic, funny work pre-Marvel (especially Welcome To Collinwood and small screen efforts on shows such as Arrested Development and Community), you’d be forgiven for thinking that those experiences, plus their successful steering of superhero behemoths would see them easily juggle the demands of a more straightforward addiction/crime story. Unfortunately, they end up pumping out a stylish, occasionally gritty film that hits every predictable plot point along its storyline. It’s one thing to abide by the tropes, especially when you’re working from someone’s actual experiences (albeit one step removed here), it’s quite another when the result never feels like it has anything fresh to say about the character’s experience. Some satirical flashes aside (keep a lookout for the names of the financial institutions where Cherry pulls off his robberies), this is often more a chore to watch than an interesting insight into a young man’s tragic life. Add to that a punishing, 140–minute running time, and you have the ingredients for something that it is hard to recommend fully. If I’m going to spend nearly two–and–a–half hours in the company of characters wrangled by the Russos, I fear I’ll stick to the ones with suits, shields and a wisecracking raccoon from space.
Cherry is on limited theatrical release now and arrives on Apple TV+ on 12 March.
Image Credit: Sony Pictures Classics
I live several thousand miles away from my parents, both of whom are in their 80s. Health issues and loneliness (at least for one of them, since they divorced decades ago and one remarried) are always on my mind, along with a portion of guilt for being so far away. The Father, then, hit very close to home for me.
Florian Zeller’s film, which he adapted from his play alongside Christopher Hampton, is a claustrophobic, endlessly emotional film about Anthony (brought to life by Anthony Hopkins). He’s mischievous, living defiantly alone and rejecting the carers that his daughter, Anne (Olivia Colman), encouragingly introduces. Yet help is also becoming a necessity for Anne; she can’t make daily visits anymore and Anthony’s grip on reality is unraveling. As we experience the ebb and flow of his memory, how much of his own identity and past can Anthony cling to? How does Anne cope as she grieves the loss of her father, while he still lives and breathes before her? It’s something that so many people with elderly parents have to face, especially the personality shifts brought on by conditions such as dementia, but this story truly belongs to Hopkins’ character.
The success of Zeller’s work is that he doesn’t rely on any showy visual tricks to unravel Anthony’s grip on reality. Swapping out cast members for the various people that are in Anthony’s life – at least, he thinks they are (Olivia Williams, Mark Gatiss, Rufus Sewell and Juno Temple are among those who are shifting personalities), the director keeps the audience off-kilter as much as Anthony. Is his family lying to him, the better to swipe his flat and belongings? How can Anthony make himself understood when his memory keeps slipping and his temper is flaring? Hopkins proves once again why he’s one of Britain’s greatest living actors, feasting on the script to make Anthony by turns vibrant, angry and anguished.
Around him, the cast is stacked with performers who can share the room with him; Colman in particular will break your heart with a simple glance. In keeping with other recent dramas, the film’s origins on stage are obvious, but that’s not a negative – the composed, contained style adds to the drama and the emotional stakes, portraying what is happening to Anthony as more like a psychological thriller than a straight drama, though again, without resorting to overly stylized direction.
Watch The Father – you will not regret it. Now, if anyone needs me, I’m going to go and phone my parents.
The Father is on limited release in US cinemas now, and out on Premium Video On Demand on March 26. It will be released in the UK on 11 June.