What a delight finding this is. Patrick Stewart beautifully carries this delicate film. A complete tour de force of acting. It is slow to develop, but the turn is brilliant, thanks to the writing and direction. Stewart is aged, but he ups Captain Pickard at his most powerful here, and in a way that isn't trading on that meme. This film is surprising and unexpected. It almost wholly takes place in an apartment, it's not much about dance (other than the zen of it), it's not about romance, it's not about even being a father, it's about life and choices. And forgiveness, the lack of which will eat you alive. As a senior, I can very much relate. Those choices can't be undone and you don't know at the time you make the choices how they will impact you or others.
I cried from the brilliant turn to the end, and am still tearful, which is a considerable time. Granted, I am losing my father (step-father, but such an ugly word, for the man who loved and raised me), but this is the first film to bring me to tears in a long time, and I watch a lot of them, so I don't think it's just my current state of emotions. My birth father was not much in my life, until just before he died, so there is that, too, and perhaps that is what is stirring me. I don't spend much emotional time on that, so a little undiscovered country there. If you have any of these issues, then this film is cathartic, instructive, and sensitive. If you don't, then just enjoy it for what it is, an amazing, rare piece of art from gifted actors and filmmakers.
I cried from the brilliant turn to the end, and am still tearful, which is a considerable time. Granted, I am losing my father (step-father, but such an ugly word, for the man who loved and raised me), but this is the first film to bring me to tears in a long time, and I watch a lot of them, so I don't think it's just my current state of emotions. My birth father was not much in my life, until just before he died, so there is that, too, and perhaps that is what is stirring me. I don't spend much emotional time on that, so a little undiscovered country there. If you have any of these issues, then this film is cathartic, instructive, and sensitive. If you don't, then just enjoy it for what it is, an amazing, rare piece of art from gifted actors and filmmakers.