Film review: Anemone

Ronan Day-Lewis’ Anemone is two-hours of burly men quietly and slowly internalising their trauma, which I concede is something only a few people are interested in. The mood is grey and rainy; the atmosphere is quiet and awkward like a forest on a foggy day. In fact, there are many foggy days in this, and quite a few strolls in the forest. And it’s all very metaphorical of these men’s state of mind. Cold, isolated, unforgiven, often violent. Men would rather retreat to the middle of the forest instead of going to therapy.

The story, told with sparce dialogue, follows a complicated family situation. Ray (Daniel Day-Lewis) is a retired veteran from the Troubles who moved to an isolated cabin in the woods somewhere in the north of England. He left behind is partner Nessa (Samantha Morton) and newborn son Brian (Samuel Bottomley). Several decades later Nessa married Ray’s brother Jem (Sean Bean) and Brian joined the army but was dismissed for getting into fight with a colleague. Nessa begs Jem to find Ray and convince him to come back and talk to his son, which is no easy feat. Northerners aren’t known for being open books, and especially not men dealing with the heavy weight of trauma.

And above all, it’s all generational. When Jem arrives at Ray’s, the two men slowly start trauma-dumping as a way to justify their isolation and responsibility. “You’re going to hell” Jem tells Ray. “Family reunion?” he replies. Maybe Ray thought that being away from Brian would save his son, that he wouldn’t have to pass on to him the violence he was subjected to by his own father, or the sexual abuse from the local priest, or the horrible violent things he had to do along the way. Ray is a victim who became a war criminal, and that’s a burden a father doesn’t know how to pass to his son.

But what Anemone is trying to say is that this pain lives in our blood, not just our house. It’s everywhere in the streets and the air we breathe. It trickles down whether we like it or not.

Not sure if I completely agree, but I understand what Day-Lewis (the director, who is also the son of Daniel) is trying to communicate. It is a very simplistic idea, though, and Day-Lewis doesn’t seem to have the experience to layer these issues, that are personal, societal, political, geographical, religious and gendered. Instead, the script, written by both father and son Day-Lewis, is framed around a series of monologues that Day-Lewis performs, about three important traumatic events. Day-Lewis (the actor) obviously nails those monologues, and it’s a pleasure to see him again on the big screen when we all thought he had finally retired. If anyone could sell a revenge story about defecating on a priest, it’s him. But it feels paltry in the grand scheme of things.

What is Anemone trying to tell us that a million other films haven’t before? In fact, why isn’t Anemone also addressing the other sides of this very complex issue? Found it funny how Day-Lewis’ performance reminded me of Peter Mullan in Tyrannosaurus, a tremendous but sadly forgotten British film that has thematic similarities with Anemone, but where the oppressive and masculine atmosphere is more cutthroat.

Anemone has good ideas and great performances. It’s a solid feature debut but it lacks visual poetry to address its dense subject. But for every cinema lover who missed good Day-Lewis sauce on the big screen, it’ll do.

Verdict: 3 out of 5
For unconditional fans of Daniel Day-Lewis who don’t know if we’ll have another chance to see the greatest actor of our generation working again.