Anemone

Grade: D+

It’s about 15 minutes before Anemone has any real dialogue. Before that, there’s some praying, somebody talking AT someone without the other person responding, and maybe some voice-over narration – but it takes 1/8 of the movie to see anyone having a conversation with somebody else. Anemone is as slow as molasses in January. Daniel Day-Lewis came out of retirement after 8 years (his first film since Phantom Thread) to have his son direct him to look reflectively and pensively at sunsets.

27-year-old Ronan Day-Lewis makes his feature film directing debut with Anemone. He co-wrote the screenplay with his old man – the three-time Oscar winner himself. The young Day-Lewis, working with cinematographer Ben Fordesman (Love Lies Bleeding), has filmed some of the most beautiful shots I’ve seen this year. Making a compelling movie that has pacing, momentum, and feels sincere is obviously not Ronan Day-Lewis’s strong suit, but in the meantime, he sure can capture a sunset, ocean, and forest.

The movie opens with Jem (Sean Bean) saying goodbye to his wife Nessa (Samantha Morton) and adopted son Brian (Samuel Bottomley from How to Have Sex). He is off to visit his very estranged brother Ray. It takes a while for Daniel Day-Lewis to be seen or say anything, but he plays Ray, who Jem joins in Ray’s extremely secluded, off-the-grid house in the middle of nowhere.

Jem and Ray drink, bond, hike, sit by the beach, occasionally squabble, and otherwise do actory things. We receive information about why Ray went into seclusion, through two long speeches. I wasn’t in the world of the film. They didn’t hit me like the Day-Lewises were hoping. All I got out of them was they were two very well-performed monologues by one of the best actors ever – and it’s only a matter of time before some actors transcribe them to use at auditions. Unless it’s a courtroom or some other public committee meeting, nobody in real life talks that long without the other person interjecting. Monologuing isn’t that true to life, and never have I been made more aware of that than here.

I don’t know how anyone kept a straight face during the filming of the lineless final scene. Though no words are spoken, there’s a lot of nodding and understanding. The last time I said that was in January 2024, with Miller’s Girl. You’re really not missing much if you give Anemone a pass. Stay home and call it a day…Lewis.

Grade: D+