Anemone
A father, Jem (Sean Bean), dismayed by his son Brian's (Samuel Bottomley, "How to Have Sex") downward spiral, seeks out the only person he thinks may be able to help, his reclusive brother Ray (Daniel Day-Lewis) in "Anemone."
Laura's Review: B-
Cowriter (with his father, Daniel Day-Lewis)/director Ronan Day-Lewis has not only caught the filmmaking bug from his mother, Rebecca Miller, but gotten one of the world's most lauded actors, his dad, to come out of retirement to star in his first feature. The film is one of those slow burners, a movie that teases out just how its characters are connected and what has befallen them to create present rifts, but it doesn't exactly say anything new and the film's catalyst, Brian, is the least well drawn character.
Like a Terrance Malick movie, nature is a powerful supporting player, but unlike sunny, American windswept plains, Day-Lewis begins his film with British storminess, the wind sweeping through deep green grasses as gray clouds threaten overhead. Then he switches to an urban setting where Jem tries to talk to Brian, the young man lying on his bed, his knuckles bruised and bloody. Jem tells the boy he's going away for a few days, takes leave of his wife, Nessa (Samantha Morton), and hops on a motorcycle.
Back in nature, we see a man chopping wood outside of a small cabin, apparently living off the grid. He starts up a generator and when Jem arrives in his doorway, Ray doesn't say a word, merely points to a mug on the table opposite him. Jem grabs a log to use as a seat and begins to drink his tea. These two are clearly at odds, particularly felt when Jem says grace before a meal, Ray not opening the letter Jem handed to him. Things begin to loosen up over a bottle of whisky, the two men dancing wildly, but it will take a number of days for the whole story to come out, Ray scandalizing Jem in between with his gleeful telling of his disgusting scatological revenge on a childhood priest. But it is Ray's experience serving in Northern Ireland which has left bigger scars.
Back in Manchester, Nessa, who we will learn is the letter writer, has a little more luck breaking through to her son, bringing home Hattie (Safia Oakley-Green, "Out of Darkness"), who we presume is a current or old girlfriend.
While Day-Lewis and Bean don't really look like brothers, the actors' revelations of disparate philosophies and experiences convince and it is a pleasure seeing Day-Lewis back on the big screen, his presence as compelling as ever, terse and tightly wound until the pain spills out of him. Bean is a calmer, quieter presence, a good foil. Morton is underused, left with little to work with but worry, often seen at her job as a police dispatcher. Bottomley is more a cipher, pleasant with Oakley-Green, but the script weighs him down with too little motivation for unexplained violence.
Cinematographer Ben Fordesman shrouds the brothers in moody shadows, things ironically much brighter at home. Day-Lewis introduces a touch of magical realism, a long-haired woman floating at the end of Ray's bed looking like a Madonna, her identity revealed later in a blurry photograph. Bobby Krlic's dark, electric rock score complements the gloomy tone.
Focus Features releases "Anemone" in theaters on 10/3/25.
