Anemone Review: Daniel Day-Lewis' Return Is An Acting Showcase For The Ages [NYFF]

What kind of man leaves behind his pregnant wife, marches off into the woods, and subjects himself to a life of seclusion with little to no contact with the outside world? "Anemone," Ronan Day-Lewis' feature debut as a director and the official acting comeback for his famous father Daniel Day-Lewis, implicitly asks this question as early as its opening scene and spends the rest of its runtime attempting to find some sort of answer. The journey that follows is as bleak, uncomfortable, and even somewhat unsatisfying as our own reality, oftentimes failing to live up to the standards or expectations we like to hold the universe up to. We need to believe that something is in control — whether it be God or nature or just a cosmic sense of justice — and that there's an ultimate purpose to the actions we take. Otherwise, we risk floating through life untethered and alone, at the whim of whatever forces are guiding us along what feels like a preordained path.

That might sound like a whole lot of pseudo-intellectual or philosophical nonsense (you know, the kind specifically meant to be eaten up by film festival crowds), but "Anemone" defies whatever labels anyone would attempt to slap onto it. Well, mostly. It's certainly a debut feature in the dictionary definition of the phrase, for better and worse, emphasizing atmosphere and striking visuals and a penchant for expressionism over any actual plot. With both father and son handling co-writing duties, much of the narrative feels reverse-engineered for the express purpose of giving the elder Day-Lewis a return from quasi-retirement worth the price of admission. What they've landed on is a haunting tone poem about brotherhood, regret, and generational cycles of violence with an irresistible hook involving our most acclaimed living actor.

The elder Day-Lewis stars as Ray Stoker, the hermit in question living on his own in the forests of Northern England for well over 15 years ... and far from the mounting troubles of his wife and son. When young soldier Brian (Samuel Bottomley) is goaded into one bloody fight too many and deserts his Army regiment for the safety of home, his concerned mother Nessa (Samantha Morton) finally reaches the end of her rope. Jem (Sean Bean) has taken up the heavy responsibility of taking care of this family in his missing brother's absence, filling the dual roles of father and husband as best he can. But he's no substitute for the real thing, and Jem has little choice but to find Ray and convince him to come home. From that point onwards, "Anemone" turns into a moody chamber piece carried by the novelty of Day-Lewis' return, the strength of several powerhouse performances, and the untapped potential of a talented nepo-baby filmmaker with plenty of room to grow.

May we always live in a world where Daniel Day-Lewis is starring in movies. The rumors of his retirement following 2017's "Phantom Thread" may have been exaggerated, but his return after eight long years is no less a welcome one. Ronan Day-Lewis clearly paid attention while visiting (and even living by) various film sets that the actor worked on in years past, and it's perhaps not a coincidence that "Anemone" has a certain Paul Thomas Anderson flavor to it. Here's yet another stubborn, curmudgeonly, and occasionally terrifying character for Day-Lewis to inhabit, breathing whole new layers into that may not have even existed in the father and son's script. The film seems well aware of this added layer of intrigue, hiding Day-Lewis' grizzled and mustached face for as long as possible before properly unveiling him as he emerges from the shadows.

Time hasn't been kind to Ray Stoker, and Day-Lewis makes him seem like an elemental force of nature. Ronan throws multiple monologues at Daniel, each of which he chews up and spits out with an intensity that forces us to sit up and listen to right alongside brother Jem. Sean Bean mostly finds himself in the role of passive listener, naturally, but don't take that for a waste of his talents. Bean makes us feel the full weight of time with every weathered line on his face and the most subtle of glances. He may be estranged from this strange and off-putting man who was once his brother, but there's no mistaking the type of wordless bond that can only form between brothers who've been through hell and back together — no matter how many times Ray throws Jem's faith in his face, or rages about his past, or brushes off the letter that Nessa sent with Jem. Ronan's direction opts for an abundance of closeups and gently roving shots, allowing moviegoers to drink in every single detail from two performers at the absolute top of their games.

So why would someone as complicated and enigmatic as Ray walk away from the only family he's known? We get closer to an answer through Brian and Nessa, whom Ronan continues to cut back to throughout the 121-minute runtime. Samuel Bottomley brings an innocence and simmering sense of rage that's keenly felt in his trembling voice and bloodied fist, but it's Samantha Morton as his mother Nessa who walks away with these scenes and leaves us begging for her character's reunion with Ray — not merely from an emotional perspective, but simply to see Morton and Day-Lewis go toe-to-toe in earnest.

Much of "Anemone" takes on an almost Biblical or fairytale feel to it, with cinematographer Ben Fordesman holding on elemental visuals of nature — shadows flickering on the stone wall of his hut, rain running down leaves, water boiling in a pot of soup — in order to lend an otherworldly feel to the otherwise grounded proceedings. Ronan Day-Lewis, a self-described painter by trade, fills his feature debut with symbolism and inexplicable images that will inspire all sorts of discussions and debate. Abstraction and expressionism is the name of the game here, though one soon gets the impression that the script can't quite find a way to bring all these contrasting concepts together in any meaningful way. As Ray and Jem hike and swim and hunt together through the forests, it's much easier to get swept up in the bristling energy between the two brothers or the painful conversations between mother and son than in the lofty, periodically supernatural ideas that creep in from the margins.

While this doesn't make for the most energetic or well-paced or thematically coherent of debuts, all of this strongly implies an undeniable talent with the potential for crafting a truly remarkable work of art someday. "Anemone" does a capable job of building up the mystery at its heart, waiting and waiting until the pressure builds before finally giving both audiences and its characters a release valve — primarily through yet another tour-de-force monologue that Daniel Day-Lewis makes a meal out of, as he's done many a time before. The ultimate answers to our most pressing questions may not be the most novel or original, but the movie finds a way to bring a feeling of catharsis through its unrelenting empathy for its characters. Even in a world that seems to be spinning out of control, it's never too late to make amends ... or at least attempt to do so. When it's all said and done, we may look back at "Anemone" as a promising first step to a much greater career.

/Film Rating: 6.5 out of 10

"Anemone" premiered at the New York Film Festival and opens in theaters in limited release on October 3, 2025 before expanding wide on October 10, 2025.