Anemone (United Kingdom/United States, 2025)

It’s never a good sign when you’re checking your watch and the movie isn’t even half over. Unfortunately, that’s the case with Anemone, the directorial debut of Ronan Day-Lewis, which also marks the screen return of the now-unretired Daniel Day-Lewis. With Day-Lewis paired against the equally formidable Sean Bean (they play estranged brothers forced together under less-than-ideal circumstances), it’s baffling how the result could be so inert, passionless, and dull. Although Day-Lewis delivers a memorable performance, his character feels aloof and half-formed, while Ben Fordesman’s striking cinematography often distracts by pulling focus away from the actors.

Put simply, although Ronan (who co-wrote the screenplay with his father) has huge ambitions for this movie, the end result is a swing and a miss. The central story follows two brothers grappling with the ghosts of the past in order to move forward. It’s about fathers and sons, and how the sins of one generation reverberate in the next. Most of the “action” unfolds deep in the woods, where Day-Lewis’ Ray has built a hermitage that keeps him apart from civilization while he stews in the acidic memories that have poisoned his life. Into this isolation comes his brother, Gem, whom he hasn’t seen in two decades. Gem has been acting as a surrogate father to Ray’s son, Brian (Samuel Bottomley), and now he has come to bring Ray home—because Brian needs to confront his father if he’s ever to exorcise his own demons.

The movie unfolds in the most turgid way imaginable. Long, dialogue-free stretches (the first real conversation doesn’t arrive until 15 minutes in) are filled with static close-ups, followed by scenes of characters either mumbling incoherently or shouting lines that aren’t worth straining to understand. When the film finally musters a pulse—during a harrowing hailstorm—it’s nearly 80% over, and by that point a good portion of the audience may already be snoring in their seats.

The film’s greatest strength lies in its visual language. Ronan and Fordesman have conjured some truly striking images. One that lingers in my mind shows three characters (and a dog) silhouetted against a beach sunset, while a stiff onshore breeze ripples the top layer of sand across the surface like water. For the thirty seconds it lasts, I was entranced—it’s the kind of image I’d happily set as wallpaper on my computer screen. There are other moments of similar splendor sprinkled throughout. But pretty pictures can only carry a film so far, and too often Ronan’s directorial instincts curdle. When Ray suggests they “play some tunes” and the camera lingers on him and Gem performing bizarre slow-motion dance moves, the movie crosses the line from earnest drama into unintentional self-parody.

Daniel Day-Lewis is, well, Daniel Day-Lewis. His eight-year absence from filmmaking (his last role being 2017’s  Phantom Thread) has done nothing to diminish his screen presence. Even when saddled with clunky dialogue and a meandering story, he remains a force of nature. Sean Bean, meanwhile, is present for nearly every one of his scenes but mostly relegated to the role of spectator. The verbal fireworks we anticipate between the two never ignite.

The film has an irritating tendency to abandon the brothers in the forest so it can wander back to civilization and check in on Brian, his mother (Samantha Morton), and his girlfriend (Safia Oakley-Green). Brian, sunk in depression, fears his father’s volcanic temper is bubbling up in him. While these scenes have thematic relevance, they feel shoehorned in and constantly disrupt the flow. Oakley-Green makes a strong impression in her brief screen time—five minutes at most—and her Hattie comes across as the only character not permanently broken.

The film never pins down an exact date, but based on small clues (car models, computer monitors) it appears to be set in the 1990s. There’s no Internet, no cellphones, and the Troubles—looming in the background as the trauma that scars these characters—are in their final years (they officially ended in 1998). The story isn’t about the Troubles specifically so much as it is about the lingering devastation of war and the way it corrodes the souls of those caught in its wake, regardless of the righteousness of their cause. It’s rich material, but despite having one of the greatest actors of his generation at his disposal, Ronan manages to fumble it—delivering a film that functions more as a sleep aid than a drama.

Anemone (United Kingdom/United States, 2025)