This is the tasteful upper-middle-class take on the awful effects of senile dementia - wealth, opera, a spacious and artfully-decorated apartment - but the trappings cannot conceal the terrible human effects of the condition in this remarkable film. It is very still, mostly taking place within a flat, making it feel theatrical, confining and intimate. There are wonderful performances by Anthony Hopkins as the elderly father and a superb supporting cast of recognisable established British actors. It plays with time, memory, location and identity with aplomb, conveying the confusion and disorientation of dementia through similar-looking actors playing the same character and the constant shifting of apparent truth and reality. The script is heartbreakingly sharp and at times darkly humorous, turning on a single sentence at times, making it a delight for the talented actors on display. If you think it is emotionally hard-going by the halfway mark - and it truly is - then the second half is increasingly devastating and with it the cruel reality it represents for many.
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