Anemone Movie Review

Anemone (2025)

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Written by: Daniel Day-Lewis & Ronan Day-Lewis
Directed by: Ronan Day-Lewis
Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Sean Bean, Samantha Morton
Rated: R
Watch the trailer

Plot
In Northern England, a man heads out on a journey into the woods to reconnect with the estranged hermit brother with whom he shared a complicated past that was altered by life-changing events decades ago.

Verdict
This movie feels like an exercise, a feature length prove it movie. This could be shortened into a much more succinct film. I get this is trying to foster relationships without relying on exposition but it's intentionally vague to the point of annoyance. We're half way in before we know the characters' relationships. How these characters are related overshadows what's happening between them. While this is visually impressive, the story, which is more compact than this movie would lead you to believe, becomes secondary to showing off the craft.
Skip it.

Review
This marks Daniel Day-Lewis's return to acting to collaborate with his son, having retired after Phantom Thread (2017). The title refers to the name of a wildflower that the character Ray tends.

I assumed the children's drawings in the opening represented The Troubles/the Northern Ireland Conflict. That is correct. The hand drawn images depict soldiers killing people. It's rather cryptic, and then the next scene is Jem (Sean Bean) praying before he tells his son and wife goodbye. Jem rides a motorcycle into the woods before looking at a note: "Anemone: Break Glass in Case of Emergency." What does that mean? The note also includes a set of coordinates.

Daniel Day-Lewis, Sean Bean plays Ray, Jem

I guessed Jem was trying to find Ray (Daniel Day-Lewis) who lives off the grid in the woods.  Why does Ray live off the grid?

Jem finds Ray, and they obviously know each other. Jem hands Ray some object and Ray states, "our inheritance." This movie is trying to be vague and in turn enigmatic. It gets annoying after a while. They seem to be family, even brothers. For some reason Ray left everything behind. One night Ray shares a tale of revenge borne from childhood trauma. Jem wasn't abused, Ray was. Is the story a rebuke?

You could break this down into a much shorter movie. I understand it wants to build the relationship without exposition, but it's intentionally vague to a fault. It could easily clarify that Ray and Jem are brothers much earlier. We're half way in before we even have a sense of their relationship. This movie makes a mystery out of how everyone is related in an attempt to add depth. That creates this pervasive question when the answer is actually quite simple. Ray ran out on his girlfriend and unborn child. For the length of the movie, it's not a lot of story though it boasts impressive visuals.

Daniel Day-Lewis plays Ray

Ray finally shares with Jem what changed him and why he left. That's right after a scene where Ray's former girlfriend shares with her son how Ray seemed to shrink and disappear. It's a narrative punch, but it's also forced and makes this feel like a fabricated story designed to extract the maximum amount of emotion.

Ray's experience in the military completely altered him. By leaving his family, they're also forever altered. Brian describes it as a curse. It's a hole that no one can fill or solve. All of the characters have this absence, and all they can do is try to cope.