Florian Zeller Creates a Grand ‘Father’ in His Filmmaking Debut

variety.com:

Tim Gray Senior Vice PresidentSony Classics’ “The Father” is an act of daring; it could have gone wrong in so many ways, but it works like gangbusters.The film marks the movie debut of writer-director Florian Zeller, whose background is as a novelist and playwright; in many cases, that would send warning signals.What’s more, it all takes place in one location, the apartment of Anthony (Anthony Hopkins), so it might have turned out to be a photographed stage play.

Third, it toys with the audience, keeping them off-balance about what is real and what’s not.Those are potential danger areas, but the film is so good that it defies all logic.Movie adaptations of plays, from Eugene O’Neill to Neil Simon, usually look like filmed theater, and.