Anemone Review: Daniel Day-Lewis Delivers Top-Notch Acting As Usual in Ronan Day-Lewis’s Muted But Visually Hypnotic Drama
Leave it to Daniel Day-Lewis when it comes to delivering a monologue in Anemone. The movie, of course, marks his highly anticipated return to acting, his first in eight years since Phantom Thread. The opening minutes immerse me in its visual beauty, all elegantly composed by Day-Lewis’s son, Ronan, in his feature-length directorial debut, with Ben Fordesman serving as the cinematographer.
The latter complements Ronan’s mesmerising visuals with his atmospheric lensing, capturing the movie’s moody aesthetics right from the get-go — storm clouds against the backdrop of shadowy, grassy fields, the bird’s-eye view of the deep dark green forest with the wind swaying the trees, before the camera closes in a tall man with silver hair chopping woods vigorously outside his shack in the Northern England woodland.
That man in question is Ray (Daniel Day-Lewis), who’s been living in solitude for the past twenty years. Interestingly, Ronan maintains Day-Lewis’s presence like an enigmatic figure, shifting its focus instead to Jem, played by Sean Bean. Jem turns out to be Ray’s brother, where we see him decide to travel all the way to the woods by motorcycle to locate his whereabouts. The journey even requires Jem to hike through the forest trails, forcing him to leave his motorcycle behind. Ronan navigates his movie’s earlier stretch with minimal dialogue as he lets the visuals and ambient noise do the talking.
Around 15 minutes in, Day-Lewis, sporting a tight, cropped hairstyle with a handlebar moustache, still doesn’t say a single word, but his expressive acting from the moment he realises Jem has arrived right at his doorstep is more than enough to convey his emotions. Just like his previous two-time retirement, first in 1997 after The Boxer before making his comeback in 2002’s Gangs of New York, and again in 2017 following Phantom Thread, there is no sign of a rusty vibe in his acting.
Day-Lewis sure knows how to command a presence as usual, and here, Ronan builds Day-Lewis’s character like a deliberate slow-burn — all quiet and contemplative at first before he gives an extended monologue. It’s a tremendous acting showcase at his finest as he tells a story to his brother about his experience with a priest. And he does so in lurid detail, highlighting how the consumption of three specific ingredients allows him to exact vengeance on the priest. Let’s just say the way he describes them to Jem is filled with resentment and even an unexpectedly dark, yet spot-on, witty humour.
It’s no easy feat for such a scene that requires the skill of an actor without the help of a single flashback to depict what Ray has done at the time. And yet, this is Daniel Day-Lewis we are talking about. A one-of-a-kind actor who can do no wrong when he is given ample room to shine. No doubt the first 40 minutes or so convince me that Anemone is a solid debut for Ronan, only to be left with mixed feelings as the movie progresses for the rest of its 126-minute runtime.
The biggest problem lies in the story that often meanders around in search of a deeper meaning within the movie’s underlying themes of guilt and generational trauma. Ronan may still inject his movie with more hypnotic imagery like the sight of a hailstorm and at one point, a surreal scene where Ray encounters an otherworldly vision. But even with Ronan’s attempt to express his movie through metaphorical symbolism, he just can’t mask the muted and erratically paced storytelling.
Still, that doesn’t mean the movie is a huge missed opportunity. Just that it doesn’t reach the level of greatness that I’m expecting here, especially given the calibre of Day-Lewis’s undeniable acting prowess. He may have stolen the show in Anemone, but the rest of the cast, notably Sean Bean and Samantha Morton, where the latter plays Ray’s estranged wife, manage to hold their own with their respective solid supporting turns.
