ANEMONE
Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Sean Bean, and Samantha Morton
Director: Ronan Day-Lewis
ADRIANO
It's nice to see Daniel Day-Lewis chewing up every single scene he's in for the first time since his supposed retirement, but he's pretty much the only thing holding Anemone together. In his directorial debut, Ronan Day-Lewis is trying too hard to show he's not just the son of a legend. In the process, as nice as it looks, he makes a movie that is stylistically all over the place (the mismatched score doesn't help), and an approach to generational trauma that's buried under vague symbolism and an unaware thesis. But hey, welcome back, Daniel, I suppose.
NICK
If you're wondering whether Daniel Day-Lewis has missed a step in his time away, he has not. His performance is the driving force of Anemone and the reason people shouldl watch it... Perhaps the only reason. Although there's something there with son Ronan's direction, it relies too heavily on its art styling and heavy-handed metaphors and symbolism. This creates an uneven film that would actually be quite boring without Daniel's magnetism. In the end, Ronan's current talent level doesn’t justify this film’s platform. Daniel’s return aside, this is a film with two memorable monologues (destined to be used in film schools) and not much else.
