"That it's exquisitely shot, and features the welcome return of Daniel Day-Lewis, the director's father and a performer of colossal intensity, somehow makes its narrative and thematic asceticism that much more pronounced. Filled with unearthly landscapes, primeval forests, and twilight beaches, Anemone 's ornate visual design seems to underscore its characters' emotional suffocation. The contrast is surely intentional, but it is also, sadly, not always a good thing. The film looks fantastic, but its impact dissipates the longer it drags on."
"Though he insists he never really meant to retire from acting, Day-Lewis père last appeared on film seven years ago, in Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread, which itself came five years after the actor's previous picture, Steven Spielberg's Lincoln. As a result, our popular image of him is perhaps not unlike our first glimpse of him in Anemone: a quiet, stoic hermit in the woods, living in a shack with one chair and one bowl, ready to throw an ax at the first intruder."
Anemone centers on self-denial and asceticism, expressed through a spare narrative and characters who retreat from modern life. The film premieres at the New York Film Festival and stages Daniel Day-Lewis as Ray, a hermitlike veteran living in an isolated woodland shack. The visual design prioritizes ornate, unearthly landscapes—primeval forests and twilight beaches—that emphasize the characters' emotional suffocation. Sean Bean appears as Ray's brother, who must traverse a vast overgrown forest to find him. The film's striking cinematography and Day-Lewis's powerful presence are offset by a pacing and restraint that gradually lessen the movie's overall impact.
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