The Good Father

 Dir: Mike Newell/GB/1986/90 mins

Lps: Anthony Hopkins, Jim Broadbent, Harriet Walter, Simon Callow

Bill Hooper (Anthony Hopkins), aggressive and disillusioned after separating from his wife, and suffering from his son's absence, meets and befriends the similarly-placed Roger at a party. When Roger's ex-wife announces that she is planning to emigrate to Australia along with his son, Roger is soon resigned to the fact. Bill, however, perhaps motivated by a sense of personal grievance and a desire for some kind of vengeance, inveigles his friend into a painful and protracted courtroom battle.

Mike Newell's follow-up to the successful Dance with a Stranger is another lacerating study of middle-class mores, with the more contemporary setting ensuring that the blade cuts even deeper. The shifting perspectives of Christopher Hampton's wittily savage adaptation of the novel by Peter Prince mean that our viewpoint is in a permanent state of flux: early on the film appears to be a caustic and reactionary attack on the feminist movement and sixties liberalism but as the narrative progresses sympathies change and the film's title is shown to be bitterly ironic, with blame for the heartache and disillusionment of the story being most equally apportioned. The performances are universally excellent, from Jim Broadbent as the gentle, confused Roger to Simon Callow as a loathesome barrister, heartless insincerity dribbling from every orifice. Best of all is Anthony Hopkins, towering over the movie as the violently mixed-up Bill, his motives ambivalent even to himself, by turns funny, tragic and frightening as he struggles to come to terms with a society he no longer understands. The Good Father is a fascinating and intelligent movie, and probably the most underrated British film of the year. 

PJN

Bill Hooper (Anthony Hopkins) is a divorced father, having left his wife Emmy (Harriet Walter) and their son Christopher, to fend for themselves. At a party he meets Roger Miles (Jim Broadbent), a teacher who is in similar circumstances, and they soon start to spend together the days that they have custody of their children. Roger finds out that his wife plans to emigrate to Australia, intending to take their child with her, and he resigns himself to the inevitability of it. However Bill is shocked to see Roger taking this lying down and encourages him to go to the courts to gain custody of the child. With the aid of the rapier wit of barrister Mark Varda (Simon Callow), they sweep through with great success. Bill is inspired by this victory and embarks upon an affair with Mary (Joanne Whalley), a young girl from his office. Everything goes very smoothly to begin with, but can it last?

Throughout the whole of the first part of the film, Bill Hooper comes across as a very intense, impetuous and generally unpleasant character; after deserting his wife, he comes enraged when she finds another man and then vents his rage by helping Roger to launch the attack on his wife for his child's custody. However in the latter parts of film, we see another character breaking through - a lonely man, who just wants to be loved. 

It is through a conversation with Mary that we find out that Bill blames his child for the break-up of his marriage, his wife's love becoming directed away from him towards the boy. Hopkins puts in a good performance, but is surpassed by a superb Simon Callow who revels in the role of the leeching, unprincipled barrister. The Good Father starts out looking as though it is going to be a bit of a feminist-bashing exercise. However the title should not be taken literally, but ironically. Hooper is not concerned about the welfare of his son; from his point of view he resents the child because of his divorce, using him only as a pawn in his struggle to achieve his own ends. Overall this is a highly enjoyable film and thoroughly recommendable. Don't be put off by all of the mumbo-jumbo waffle above, just come and see the film it's brill! 

JPB