Daniel Day-Lewis Returns in Mediocre Misfire

Daniel Day-Lewis has become something of a legend. He’s so well-known for his acting prowess that in May 2024, not one, not two, but three movies name-dropped the thespian: The Fall Guy, The Garfield Movie, and Hit Man. It’s been seven years since Day-Lewis’s last acting role in 2017’s Phantom Thread. He has now come out of retirement for Anemone, a film he co-wrote with his son Ronan Day-Lewis, who also serves as the film’s director. Despite how fortunate we should all be to get to watch an all-time great actor bless the screen with another revolutionary performance, Anemone is not quite as powerful as it wants to be.

The novelty of a father-son collaboration, paired with the generational theme of the film itself, makes Anemone intriguing before a frame is shown. But while the film contains flashes of brilliance and performances of undeniable power, it ultimately buckles under the weight of its self-seriousness, its meandering pacing, and a script that too often feels unfinished.

The premise is starkly simple: Ray Stoker (Day-Lewis), a former soldier who has lived in near-total isolation in the woods of Northern England for twenty years, reunites with his brother Jem (Sean Bean). Their reunion is not one of warmth or catharsis but of unease, suspicion, and unresolved grief. Over shared meals and long silences, their differences are drawn out, most pointedly in an early scene when Jem says grace before dinner while Ray abstains, a small but telling rift in belief and temperament. Around them orbit Nessa (Samantha Morton) and Brian (Samuel Bottomley), family members with their own perspectives and resentments, though the film never grants their subplot the same clarity or urgency as the fractured bond between the brothers.

What is most striking about Anemone in its first act is its stillness. Ronan Day-Lewis clearly favors quiet observation, encouraging viewers to linger on the faces of his actors as they process emotion in silence. Cinematographer Ben Fordesman captures the misty landscapes and claustrophobic interiors with painterly precision, often holding onto Ray’s expression until it becomes almost unbearable. At times, this restraint creates hypnotic tension, pulling the audience into the private world of two men who hardly know how to speak to each other anymore.

When dialogue does arrive, the film briefly crackles to life. Day-Lewis proves once again why he is regarded as one of the finest actors alive, delivering two long monologues that will surely be clipped, studied, and performed in acting classes for years to come. They are showcases of rhythm and precision, recounting violent and traumatic memories in such raw detail that one is both riveted and repulsed. In these moments, Anemone achieves what it seems to strive for throughout: a confrontation with the buried horrors of the past that define who we become. Bean matches him admirably, bringing a weary gravitas to Jem that grounds the pair’s exchanges in lived-in authenticity.

Unfortunately, those monologues also underscore the film’s larger problem: the script feels designed more to spotlight performance than to tell a fully engaging story. Too often, the film substitutes eloquent speeches for dramatic action, letting its characters recount their pain rather than enact it. Entire stretches consist of people sitting around tables or by firesides, rehashing what has already been established. The focus on the past—the wars fought, the absences endured—overshadows the present. As a result, the film never generates much forward momentum. The narrative doesn’t feel like it’s progressing so much as circling the same wound.

This issue becomes more glaring when the film detours into the subplot involving Nessa and Brian. Morton and Bottomley are excellent actors, but their material is thinner and far less compelling than the fraught dynamic between the brothers. Their scenes feel vague, almost placeholder-like, as if the screenplay had not been fully fleshed out. Each time the film cuts away from Ray and Jem, it loses focus, and with it, the audience’s investment.

There are attempts at surrealism, most memorably an early image of a woman floating near Ray’s bed, that hint at a dreamlike or symbolic register. Yet these flourishes are scattered and unresolved, adding texture without meaning. They feel like fragments of a more daring film that never quite arrives. When the score swells and the brothers walk together in silence, one senses what Ronan Day-Lewis is reaching for: a cinematic meditation on masculinity, family, and the ghosts that linger in absence. But the execution rarely transcends the schematic.

The final scene does land with a measure of force, bringing together the film’s thematic threads in a way that feels earned. Still, it is not enough to justify the long stretches of inertia that precede it. Anemone is a debut feature with obvious ambition and a visual command that promises more from Ronan Day-Lewis in the future. Yet it is also a film that leans too heavily on the magnetism of its leading man and the allure of its behind-the-scenes novelty. Strip away the once-in-a-generation actor’s return and the father-son collaboration, and what remains is a beautifully photographed but dramatically underpowered chamber piece.

To be clear, Anemone is not a disaster. It is a respectable, often hauntingly performed film that will satisfy those who come simply to witness Daniel Day-Lewis work again. But it is also frustratingly inert, a film more content to sit with pain than to dramatize it, more fascinated by silence than by movement. The actors do extraordinary work, yet they are stranded in a script that does not rise to their level.

In the end, Anemone is less a triumphant return than a curious experiment. It’s an exploration of family wounds, of artistic inheritance, of what happens when genius talent meets tentative direction. For admirers of Daniel Day-Lewis, it will be essential viewing. For everyone else, it may feel like a missed opportunity.

SCORE: 5/10

As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 5 equates to “Mediocre.” The positives and negatives wind up negating each other, making it a wash.

Disclosure: ComingSoon attended the New York Film Festival for our Anemone review.