September 28, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by Ronan Day-Lewis
Culture Representation: Taking place in the mid-1990s, in northern England, the dramatic film “Anemone” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with one biracial person) representing the working-class and middle-class.
Culture Clash: Two brothers with opposite lifestyles—a religious family man and an atheist recluse—reunite in the isolated wooded area where the recluse brother lives, and they have uncomfortable confrontations about their past and present, while the recluse’s ex-wife and son deal with their own family-related issues.
Culture Audience: “Anemone” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and artistically made and well-acted dramas about fractured families.
“Anemone” is an emotionally raw drama about a reckoning and an uneasy reunion of a family haunted by the devastating effects of war and parental abandonment. The movie’s slow pacing is outweighed by impressive acting and creative visuals. “Anemone” marks the cinematic return of Oscar-winning actor Daniel Day-Lewis, after his eight-year hiatus between movies. His previous film was 2017’s “Phantom Thread.”
Directed by Ronan Day-Lewis, “Anemone” is his feature-film debut. Ronan Day-Lewis (the second of Daniel Day-Lewis’ three sons) and Daniel Day-Lewis co-wrote the “Anemone” screenplay. “Anemone” (which had its world premiere at the 2025 New York Film Festival) also marks the screenwriting debut of Daniel-Day Lewis, who has said in interviews that working with Ronan on “Anemone” was a big reason why he decided to go back to making movies.
“Anemone” takes place in northern England, over the course of a few days, sometime in the mid-1990s. The movie’s opening credits feature a striking illustration that looks like it was drawn by a child. The illustration is a depiction of the Troubles, the period of time from 1968 to 1998, when the United Kingdom and Ireland battled over possession of Northern Ireland.
The Troubles looms like a metaphorical destructive ghost over the Stoker family in “Anemone.” It’s eventually revealed in the movie that in the mid-1970s, brothers Ray Stoker (played by Daniel Day-Lewis) and Jem Stoker (played by Sean Bean) served in the British military during the Troubles. The movie does not show this period of time in flashback scenes, but this period of time is instead shown in photographs and is described in bits and pieces during conversations.
It also revealed later in the movie that Ray and his ex-wife Nessa (played by Samantha Morton) have a son named Brian (played by Samuel Bottomley), who was born 20 years ago and who never knew Ray. Ray abandoned Nessa when she was pregnant with Brian. Jem eventually became Nessa’s live-in partner and raised Brian, who has always known that Ray is Brian’s biological father who abandoned the family.
Photographs show that there used to be a time when Ray, Brian and Nessa were in their late teens or early 20s, they all used to be very good friends with each other. Nessa currently works as a telephone dispatcher in a call center for emergency ambulance. This call center serves as a striking backdrop when something unexpected happens in the movie. It’s not really clear in the movie what Jem does for a living.
Ray served in the British military as a “shadow soldier” for about 15 years. Ray didn’t go back to his family after getting out of the military. After his military serviced ended, Ray moved to an isolated wooded area and became a recluse living in a cabin. “Anemone” is mostly about what happens when Jem goes to visit Ray, and they both confront painful emotional wounds from their past and present.
The beginning of “Anemone” shows Jem praying at an altar in his home and getting on a motorcycle to go visit Ray. Before Jem leaves, he says a gentle goodbye to Brian, who is asleep in bed. The word “depression” isn’t said out loud in the movie, but Brian shows a lot of signs that he’s in the midst of a debilitating depression: He’s isolated himself in his bedroom, where Bran doesn’t do much but sleep a lot, cry sadly, stare ahead, throw darts, or angrily lash out in arguments with Nessa.
Jem is mainly visiting Ray to tell him that Brian’s mental health is “in trouble,” but this uncomfortable reunion becomes more than talking about Brian. During the course of the movie, Ray is wildly erratic—cursing and physically fighting Jem one minute, and then dancing and laughing with Jem moments later. At times, Ray acts superior to Jem. Other times, Ray seems to think Jem is superior to Ray—and it’s a thought that sends Ray into barely disguised fits of self-loathing.
Jem puts a lot of faith in Christianity, while Ray has no faith in any religion. Jem is also a very good listener, because Ray tends to go off on rants. “Anemone” has two very memorable monologues from Ray. In the first monologue, he rambles about Guinness and curry, among other things. The second monologue cuts deeper under Ray’s fiercely guarded emotional surface and reveals why Ray has stayed away from his family.
In between the scenes of Jem and Ray having their volatile brotherly reunion, there are scenes of the turmoil in the Stoker family home, as Nessa struggles to help Brian, who is sullen and deeply resentful of Ray being a deadbeat dad. Brian also has a friend named Hattie (played by Safia Oakley-Green), who might be a love interest to Brian, but she isn’t in the movie long enough to show the full scope of their relationship. Hattie is shown briefly coming over to the Stoker home to comfort Brian.
There’s a scene in “Anemone” where Brian’s pent-up anger over Ray comes out when he shouts at Nessa that Ray is “a killer and a coward.” Nessa scolds Brian and tells him to never talk about anyone in that insulting way. She comments to Brian about Ray: “He gave you life.” Brian yells back, “You gave me life! He gave me a fucking curse!”
“Anemone” has a lot of emotion-driven dialogue, but the movie has plenty of silences that weigh heavy with emotions that are deliberately repressed or are just to painful to express. The movie also features some creative visuals that are almost like psychedelic hallucinations, such as a mysterious, floating figure with pulsating organs, or memories that come to life as a freeze-framed image.
“Anemone” is no doubt an artistic film, with an expected towering performance from Daniel Day-Lewis as the very troubled Ray. Bean, Morton and Bottomley (the other cast members with the most significant screen time in the movie) give committed and compelling performances as these emotionally fraught family members. However, the pacing of the movie is a bit plodding—some might say “self-indulgent.”
Ben Fordesman’s wonderful cinematography in “Anemone” features a lot of melancholy shades of blues (representing depression about the past) and lush shades of green (representing the promise of rebirth) to the movie’s visual palette. These hues are apt symbols for the movie’s juxtaposed moods of being stuck in the quagmire of past hurt and seeking an escape through personal reinvention. The movie’s visual effects also serve the movie well, although some viewers might consider these visual effects to be gimmicky or unnecessary to the story.
Despite elements of surrealism in “Anemone,” the movie remains grounded in the very realistic portrayals of human beings with flaws and frailties. What will keep viewers’ interest is wanting to know if the movie will answer this question: “Can this fractured family be healed?” In that respect, “Anemone” doesn’t give a definitive answer but gives enough of an indication that this reunion is one step in the direction of taking on this challenge.
Focus Features will release “Anemone” in U.S. cinemeas on October 3, 2025.
