Director: Ronan Day-Lewis
Writers: Daniel Day-Lewis, Ronan Day-Lewis
Stars: Daniel Day-Lewis, Sean Bean, Samuel Bottomley
Synopsis: In Northern England, a man heads out on a journey into the woods to reconnect with the estranged hermit brother with whom he shared a complicated past that was altered by life-changing events decades ago.
When screen legend Daniel Day-Lewis wasn’t going viral on Film Twitter for getting immaculate workwear fits off, many wondered whether or not he would ever grace the big screen again with his presence. One of the greatest to ever do it, with 3 Best Actor Oscars under his belt, Day-Lewis has earned enough acclaim for several lifetimes over. So upon the announcement of Anemone, cinephiles everywhere burst out with excitement at the return of the king. But could anybody be blamed for accepting the news with a tinge of curiosity as well? Excluding Anemone, Day-Lewis has turned in six performances this century: four of which were at the hands of some of the greats; Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and Paul Thomas Anderson twice. For co-writer/debut feature director Ronan Day-Lewis, that company surely must have felt incredibly daunting. Anemone is additionally celebrating its world premiere at the 63rd New York Film Festival. This is all to say that the weight of Anemone had proven itself quite lofty before ever screening for audiences. And the result of this feature debut is a story riddled with emotion, and indicative of a sweet creative partnership between father and son. For all that baggage it carried, Anemone remains pared-back and seemingly free of its contextual weight. It’s quite telling as to how both Day-Lewis men seem to consider the essential nature of small-scale stories.
The actual story of Anemone may be fairly surface-level; but the way the film goes about portraying this story links itself to the emotional depths it hopes to have mined by the time the credits roll. Many of the most emotional sequences are operating in a capacity that sees emotional outbursts and resonance captured as larger-than-life. It’s a film which can often entrance or leave its viewer mesmerized. Take, for example, the opening sequence of the film. The camera slowly pans across the drawings of a child. As the music builds louder and louder, the crayon images become more disturbing and intriguing. We then see Jem (Sean Bean) sadly informing his son, Brian (Samuel Bottomley), that he must take an unexpected trip. There’s little warning of his sudden departure, and even less explanation as to why Brian is so distraught. And after an isolating road trip through Northern England via motorcycle, Jem finds himself on foot and all but vanishes amongst the thick greenery of a beautifully captured woodscape. There’s little to no dialogue throughout the first act, and we’ve only caught flashes of Ray (Day-Lewis) thus far, with the film opting to hold back its biggest hand for as long as possible. Anemone revels in this sort of evocative, drip-fed storytelling. By the time we see Ray in side-profile, still having not said a word and fully shying away from the camera, a radiant light shines into the secluded cabin he appears to be living in, heralding the on-screen return of the legend himself.
Yet this blinding light is also one that speaks to the subtextual elements present in the film. In some ways based on body language, it’s as if Ray is being taunted by the shining beauty. Despite being devoid of any context whatsoever, Ray has clearly been in these woods long enough to form a routine. It’s also been long enough for him that, upon hearing the slightest hint of company, he grabs an axe and prepares to strike without hesitation. Before we know it, Jem and Ray are face-to-face, making way for a reunion devoid of emotion, perhaps with the exception of bewilderment at the other’s presence. Jem’s arrival at Ray’s cabin signifies a shift in Anemone. Whereas the first act borders on a silent mystery, the second act shifts into a chamber-piece drama with comedic elements. Its dry humor is exemplified in the deeply uncomfortable sibling sleepover occurring. Ray has space for one: there’s no extra bed, no extra table setting, nor even an extra seat. Despite that, Ray extends a quiet kindness to Jem that comes across as rather touching. It also raises so many additional questions about what could have possibly happened between the two. There’s the obviously massive elephant in the room as to why Ray is in a seemingly self-imposed exile where he finds himself actively haunted at night. It’s in these sequences, where Ronan tinkers with some genre elements and more fantastical imagery, that Anemone extends itself beyond its grounded narrative. This is a film rooted in realism, but that doesn’t mean it can’t toy with depicting ideas through dream-like visuals. It’s in choices like these that find evoking emotion more important than highlighting literal reality. These moments arguably allow the most emotionally bare sequences to work so effectively in the film’s favor.
Two pivotal moments surrounding emotional breakthroughs come in the form of elite Daniel Day-Lewis monologues. The first of two is almost maddening in how well it works; to reveal its substance would feel criminal. But the fact that Day-Lewis can take its ridiculousness and instantly morph it into something which acutely conveys Ray’s barely-contained pain and simmering rage is nothing short of brilliant. There’s simply nobody else who has it figured out quite like Daniel Day-Lewis has. It’s so easy to get lost in Ray’s eyes, in which Ronan sometimes captures literal fire within. But of course, there’s the flip side to everything and everyone. It’s something highlighted in the second monologue Day-Lewis delivers as Ray. Much like an earlier juxtaposed smash-cut from beautiful, frigid ocean waves to that of an all-consuming, blazing hot fire, wildly opposing emotions can be equally conveyed with a mesmerizing quality by Daniel. The duality of man is present throughout Ray’s expressions of pain. Having kept it all in for so long, how he unravels his character from within is deeply heartbreaking. The dual relationships between pain and sadness and anger and loneliness is what fuels so much of both this performance and this film. It’s no surprise Anemone is operating at its very peak when Daniel Day-Lewis is allowed to do what he does best. But that’s not to say Ronan takes the easy way out with his film by relying on his powerhouse father.
On the contrary, there’s a handful of elements which stand out in Anemone that speak to a potentially exciting career from Ronan. First and foremost, directing Bean against Day-Lewis is a wondrous thing to see play out. It is a deeply quiet performance, but works very well against the brashness of Daniel’s Ray. Jem silently absorbs everything occurring around him, and you can see him actively reckoning with accepting his brother for who he has become in the years which have passed since last seeing him. Despite its scale, Anemone is a film which understands the vast burden emotional weight can place onto an individual. For the family at the center of this film, there’s much more at stake than the story as it reads plainly on paper. This is shown by Ronan through the more fantastical elements of the script. Anemone has no problem allowing itself some rather bold liberties in the face of its grounded reality. It makes viewing the film that much more compelling, allowing us to imbue our own ideas onto its often beautiful, ethereal imagery and strange occurrences. Anemone may be indicative of a filmmaker actively finding his footing, but the bold liberties it takes in telling such a grounded story speaks to the possibility of another exciting Day-Lewis family member entering the world of cinema.
Anemone is celebrating its world premiere at the 63rd New York Film Festival as part of the Spotlight section.
