Excitement. Anticipation. A smidge of trepidation. These were just some of the feelings stirred when we learned that three-time Oscar winner and legend of the game Daniel Day-Lewis would be returning to acting for his son Ronan Day-Lewis’ feature directorial debut, Anemone, last October. Excitement for a day we thought would never come; anticipation of Day-Lewis’ first film since 2017’s Phantom Thread; and trepidation because, well, after eight years away, there was just no knowing what the My Left Foot, Lincoln, and There Will Be Blood star’s might bring. Suffice it to say, it looks like what Anemone is about to bring us is another extraordinary DDL performance in an incredibly tense, beautifully shot family drama. Just check out the newly dropped first trailer below and see;
Described only as an exploration of “the complex and profound ties that exist between brothers, fathers, and sons”, an air of mystery surrounds Anemone, trained painter-turned-filmmaker Ronan Day-Lewis’ first foray into feature filmmaking. And this first trailer for the movie leans into that enigmatism, introducing Daniel Day-Lewis and Sean Bean’s estranged brothers Ray (Day-Lewis) and Jem Stoker (Bean) as they are thrust back together amid howling winds and crushing thunder in the North of England. What exactly has brought them back together is unknown, as is what specifically in their past pulled them apart, but a military history is alluded to and the brothers are both evidently struggling with their own forms of PTSD. If you look real close, there’s also a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shot of something that looks very Patronus-y, but we’ve no working theories on that just yet…
Even in this brief first look at Anemone, two things are immediately apparent. Firstly, Daniel Day-Lewis has 100% still got it, and the wild-eyed look he gives Sean Bean when he says “I’m beyond your reach” will live rent-free in our minds until October. And secondly, Ronan Day-Lewis — who’s co-written this film with his father — clearly has a hell of a directorial eye: working with Love Lies Bleeding DP Ben Fordesman and The Zone Of Interest production designer Chris Oddy, Day-Lewis Jr. has locked in to a rural foreboding that’s as portentous as it is devastatingly easy on the eye.
The official logline for the movie, which also stars Samantha Morton, Samuel Bottomley, and Safia Oakley-Green, reads as follows: “the Northern England–set film begins as a middle-aged man (Bean) sets out from his suburban home on a journey into the woods, where he reconnects with his estranged hermit brother (Day-Lewis). Bonded by a mysterious, complicated past, the men share a fraught, if occasionally tender relationship—one that was forever altered by shattering events decades earlier.”
Daniel Day-Lewis back in the acting saddle. A brooding family drama co-written by father and son. And a trailer that asks more questions than it answers. Yeah, we’re thinking Anemone is one to keep an eye on when it hits UK cinemas on 7 November.
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